The Pathways of Pain

The Pathways of Pain

In 1931, the French medical missionary Dr. Albert Schweitzer wrote, "Pain is a more terrible lord of mankind than even death itself." Today, pain has become the universal disorder, a serious and costly public health issue, and a challenge for family, friends, and health care providers who must give support to the individual suffering from the physical as well as the emotional consequences of pain (1).

Early humans related pain to evil, magic, and demons. Relief of pain was the responsibility of sorcerers, shamans, priests, and priestesses, who used herbs, rites, and ceremonies as their treatments. The Greeks and Romans were the first to advance a theory of sensation, the idea that the brain and nervous system have a role in producing the perception of pain. But it was not until the middle ages and well into the Renaissance-the 1400s and 1500s-that evidence began to accumulate in support of these theories. Leonardo da Vinci and his contemporaries came to believe that the brain was the central organ responsible for sensation. Da Vinci also developed the idea that the spinal cord transmits sensations to the brain. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the study of the body and the senses continued to be a source of wonder for the world's philosophers. In 1664, the French philosopher René Descartes described what to this day is still called a "pain pathway" (5).

What prompted me to research about the various pain pathways was my grandmother's arthritis. She has suffered for many years with severe joint pain and in the past, has been treated with corticosteroids. Currently, she is taking Celebrex, (COX-2 inhibitor) which is a relatively new drug in the family of 'superaspirins'. What impressed...

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...ds the promise of an even greater understanding of pain in the coming years. Their research offers a powerful weapon in the battle to prolong and improve the lives of people with pain: hope (1) .

References

1)National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/

2)American Pain Society

http://www.ampainsoc.org/

3)American Academy of Pain Management

http://www.aapainmanage.org/

4)PainNet.Inc

http://www.pain.com/

5)International Association for the Study of Pain

http://www.halcyon.com/iasp

6)MayDay Pain Project, The.

http://www.painandhealth.org/

7)Pain Treatment: Janssen-Cilag Pharm.

http://www.janssen-cilag.com/

8)American Chronic Pain Organization

http://www.theacpa.org/

9)Rest Ministries Chronic Illness

http://www.restministries.org/

10)Worldwide Congress on Pain

http://www.pain.com/