For Patients

Pain and its origin

The mechanism of pain generation is more complicated than the speed of pain perception would suggest: Throughout the body are distributed certain receiving devices of the nerve cells, the receptors, which perceive influences harmful to the body. The stimulus that triggers the pain is converted into an electrical impulse by the pain receiving sites and transmitted via the spinal cord to the brain. There is a corresponding site in the brain for each region of the human body. When the stimulus reaches the brain, the pain is felt - but at the site where it originates. Only fractions of a second pass between the pain stimulus and reaching the pain center in the brain.

To intensify the transmission of pain, pain messengers are released in the body that stimulate the pain receptors and thus intensify the sensation of pain. These pain messengers, which include prostaglandins, for example, are formed in the tissues in a complicated process. Painkillers interfere with this mechanism and prevent the formation of the prostaglandin; pain is inhibited.

AT-WEB-31-10-2021