Pain threshold — it’s not really a concrete concept. The fact that this term is understood as patients and doctors, is somewhat different.
Trying to summarize and generalize the concept of pain threshold, we will receive a conditional impact on the human body, above which we feel what is called pain. Pain is an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with the current or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage (definition of the International Association for the study of pain, IASP).
The value of the pain threshold to practical life is somewhat exaggerated. So, in research activities is an important indicator in a number of works which explore the threshold of onset of pain threshold, pain tolerance, pain threshold temperature, the threshold Pressor pain. We also evaluate the threshold of the emergence of the protective reflexes that arise in response to the controlled power of the pain (nociceptive flexeril reflex, blink reflex). In the practice of medicine these methods are investigated rarely in connection with the ambiguity of their understanding. In everyday life, under the pain threshold often understand the severity of visible — motor or verbal response to pain, but it is not correct to use the term, it is more consistent with the notion of threshold of pain tolerance.
Itself the pain threshold as the perception of pain depends on many factors. The perception of pain is affected by previous life experiences, including “painful history”, social and cultural factors, family traditions, level of motivation of the person at a particular point in time, the presence of concomitant emotional or mental disorders (depression or anxiety), sleep disturbance, General fatigue level of the person, the level of perceived stress, and hormone levels (including the phase of the cycle in women).
Reaction to pain is a behavior that is more dependent on environmental and cultural factors, and individual notions of acceptable behavior, the level of demonstrative and other factors. So, there is a religious layers in which pain is perceived as a redemption, there are patients with serious spinal injuries, which informed that the presence of pain is a required indicator of “recovery” of the neural structures (that is not quite true). Unknown pain that the patient has not been previously “acquainted”, is a great response, what is known or expected. The pain of physical exertion in the gym can be expected as a “symbol” of successful training and the expected adding muscle mass (which is also untrue). The pain that regularly meet women is rarely perceived as a reason for seeking medical help, because it’s a pain, previously encountered with the known causes and duration.
In the medical environment, the use of the concept of pain threshold and its application is possible in patients with chronic pain syndromes, including headaches, with the possible presence of emotional disorders, living in conditions of chronic stress, and so on. It is believed that groups of products which support and modulate the level of pain threshold are antidepressants and anticonvulsants.
