Pain

Abstract

Pain is a useful warning signal, an alarm that prevents us from damaging our bodies irreparably as we go about daily life. However, pain arising late in the course of disease, or produced by dysfunction of the nervous system, has no survival value. Indeed, there is accumulating evidence that pain per se can have adverse health effects. For example, pain has been shown in animal studies to inhibit immune function, and to enhance tumor growth. In humans, appropriate pain management can be shown to enhance healing. Pain is an thus important clinical issue in its own right.