| acupuncture | A technique of healing and pain control developed in China in which long, thin needles are inserted into designated areas of the body to reduce discomfort in a target area of the body.
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| acute pain | Short-term pain that usually results from some specific injury.
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| biofeedback | A method whereby an individual is provided with ongoing specific information or feedback about how a particular physiological process operates, so that he or she can learn how to modify that process.
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| chronic benign pain | Pain that typically persists for 6 months or longer and is relatively intractable to treatment. The pain varies in severity and may involve any of a number of muscle groups. Chronic low back pain and myofascial pain syndrome are examples.
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| chronic pain | Pain that may begin after an injury, but which does not respond to treatment and persists over time.
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| chronic progressive pain | Pain that persists longer than 6 months and increases in severity over time. Typically it is associated with malignancies or degenerative disorders such as skeletal metastatic disease or rheumatoid arthritis.
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| counterirritation | A pain control technique that involves inhibiting pain in one part of the body by stimulating or mildly irritating another area, sometimes adjacent to the area in which the pain is experienced.
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| distraction | A pain control method that may involve either focusing on some stimulus irrelevant to the pain experience or reinterpreting the pain experience; redirecting attention to reduce pain.
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| endogenous opioids | Opiate-like substances produced by the body.
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| guided imagery | A technique of relaxation and pain control in which a person conjures up a picture that is held in mind during a painful or stressful experience.
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| hypnosis | A pain management technique involving relaxation, suggestion, distraction, and the focusing of attention.
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| nociception | The perception of pain.
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| pain behaviors | Behaviors that result in response to pain, such as cutting back on work or taking drugs.
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| pain control | The ability to reduce the experience of pain, report of pain, emotional concern over pain, inability to tolerate pain, or presence of pain-related behaviors.
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| pain management programs | Coordinated, interdisciplinary efforts to modify chronic pain by bringing together neurological, cognitive, behavioral, and psychodynamic expertise concerning pain; such programs aim not only to make pain more manageable, but to modify the lifestyle that has evolved because of the pain.
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| pain-prone personality | The belief that there is a constellation of personality traits that predisposes a person to experience chronic pain.
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| recurrent acute pain | Pain that involves a series of intermittent episodes of pain that are acute in character but chronic inasmuch as the condition persists for more than 6 months; migraine headaches, temperomandibular disorder (involving the jaw), and trigeminal neuralgia (involving spasms of the facial muscles) are examples.
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2003 McGraw-Hill Higher Education