Glossary

Author: Glossary

  • Standards for pain relief

    Standards for the Relief of Acute Pain and Cancer Pain developed by the American Pain Society.  

  • Shooting pain

    Pain that seems to travel like lightning from one place to another.  

  • Root pain

    Cutaneous pain caused by disease of the sensory nerve roots. Pain that originates from injury to, compression of, or illness affecting the roots of a sensory nerve. This type of pain is experienced in the skin regions served by the impacted nerve roots.  

  • Rest pain

    Pain due to ischemia that comes on when sitting or lying.  

  • Remittent pain

    Pain with temporary abatements in severity; characteristic of neuralgia and colic.  

  • Radicular pain

    Pain that radiates away from the spinal column through an extremity or the torso resulting from the compression or irritation of a spinal nerve root or large paraspinal nerve. It may be accompanied by numbness or tingling.  

  • Psychogenic pain

    Pain having rhental, as opposed to organic, origin. Pain triggered by mental or emotional factors rather than a physical origin. Ongoing pain without a clear physical reason might stem from a psychological condition.  

  • Pseudomyelic pain

    The false sensation of movement in a paralyzed limb or of no movement in a moving limb; not a true pain.  

  • Premonitory pain

    Ineffective contractions of the uterus before the beginning of true labor.  

  • Precordial pain

    Pain felt in the center of the chest (e.g., below the sternum) or in the left side of the chest.