Pain

Pain: Pain is a feeling triggered in the nervous system. Pain may be sharp or dull. It may come and go, or it may be constant.
The word "pain" comes from the Latin poena meaning punishment, a fine, a penalty. Pain is an unpleasant sensation; nociception or nociperception is a measurable physiological event of a type usually associated with pain and agony and suffering.
Pain may range in intensity from slight through severe to agonizing. It is experienced as having qualities such as sharp, throbbing, dull, nauseating, burning and shooting. It often has both an emotional quality and a sensed bodily location. Medical professionals will sometimes ask patients to rate their pain on a scale of zero through ten, where ten is consistent with screaming and thrashing about.
Pain can be classified as acute or chronic. The distinction between acute and chronic pain is not based on its duration of sensation, but rather the nature of the pain itself. The primary distinction is this: acute pain serves to protect one after an injury. Chronic pain does not serve this or any other purpose. Acute pain is the symptom of pain. Chronic pain is the disease of pain.

The concept of pain has played an important part in the study of philosophy, particularly in the philosphy of mind. The question of what pain actually consists in is still open since any evaluation is dependent upon what subject one approaches the question from. Identity theorists assert that the mental state of pain is completely identical with some physical state caused by various physiological causes. Functionalist consider pain to be defined completely by its causual role (ie in the role it has in bringing about various effects) and nothing else. Some theologians and other spiritual traditions have much to say about the nature of pain and its various spiritual consequences, especially its role in growth, understanding, compassion, and in providing an aspect of life to be overcome.

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