Definition
A variant of nociceptive pain (pain resulting from ongoing activation of primary afferent neurons by noxious stimuli), epicritic pain is transmitted to the spinal cord by A Delta (δ) fibers. These fibers are sparsely myelinated, large-diameter, and fast-conducting, which transmit sharp, well-localized pain. A δ fibers are mostly sensitive to mechanical and thermal stimuli. Epicritic pain is less responsive to opioid therapy than is protopathic pain.
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McCaffery, M., & Pasero, C. (1999). Pain clinical manual (2nd ed.). St. Louis: Mosby.
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Donnelly, K. (2018). Epicritic Pain. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_728
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_728
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Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
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Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57111-9
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