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Sympathetic Nervous System and Pain

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Encyclopedia of Pain

Introduction

Research on the relationship between the autonomic nervous system and pain is a developing field with many facets that are interesting from the biological, pathobiological and clinical point of view. The terms biology and pathobiology are preferred to physiology and pathophysiology, because they include physiological, morphological, biochemical and molecular aspects. This field will be briefly reviewed in a broad context, with focus on the sympathetic nervous system, The peripheral sympathetic noradrenergic neuron will be argued to have, in addition to its conventional function to transmit signals generated in the brain to peripheral target cells (e.g. smooth muscle cells, secretory epithelia, heart cells, neurons of the enteric nervous system etc.), quite different functions that are directly or indirectly related to protection of body tissues and pain. Some of these functions have not been studied as extensively as the function to regulate autonomic target cells (Jänig...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physiology Institute, Christian Albrechts University Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Wilfrid Jänig

  2. Department of Neurological Pain Research and Therapy, Neurological Clinic, Christian Albrechts University Kiel, Kiel, Germany

    Ralf Baron

Authors
  1. Wilfrid Jänig
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  2. Ralf Baron
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Physiological Institute, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany

    Robert F. Schmidt

  2. Department of Neuroscience and Cell Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, USA

    William D. Willis

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© 2007 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Jänig, W., Baron, R. (2007). Sympathetic Nervous System and Pain. In: Schmidt, R., Willis, W. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29805-2_4327

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-29805-2_4327

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-43957-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-29805-2

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