There is evidence that in most of animals, veterinarians provide inadequate treatment for pain. This may depend partially upon the minds of veterinarians and partially upon the consequences of evolution, besides the complex nature of the pain experience. Aim of this review may be to bring to up to date main molecular mechanisms and evolutionary key-concepts of animal pain in order to improve veterinary therapeutic strategies. If a gradual distinction from nociception and inflammatory pain to neuropathic/functional pain may be validated, both nociception and inflammatory pain may be considered adaptive because of protective function and healing promotion, respectively, in contrast to neuropathic pain, considered to be maladaptive, as an expression of the pathologic response of the nervous system. In human beings as well as in animals (particularly vertebrates and mammals), adaptive nociceptive pain system is an early key alarm device, while maladaptive pain is an alarm system, constantly switched on, without emergency. Protective function avoids both insensitivity to pain that causes tissue damages, included self-induced mutilation, as well as constant alarm to innocuous stimuli that request higher threshold to become painful. In an evolutionary perspective, there is recent evidence that cold inhibits pain, and that both these are interoceptive sensations participating to homeostasis and survival. In nociceptive system, recent interesting advances occurred in human physiological and pharmacological mechanisms, including novel ionic channels, surgical pain, interoception, cortical representation, and psychological factors.

Pathophysiology of animal pain : an update / D. Fonda. - In: VETERINARY RESEARCH COMMUNICATIONS. - ISSN 0165-7380. - 31:Suppl. 1(2007 Aug), pp. 49-54.

Pathophysiology of animal pain : an update

D. Fonda
Primo
2007

Abstract

There is evidence that in most of animals, veterinarians provide inadequate treatment for pain. This may depend partially upon the minds of veterinarians and partially upon the consequences of evolution, besides the complex nature of the pain experience. Aim of this review may be to bring to up to date main molecular mechanisms and evolutionary key-concepts of animal pain in order to improve veterinary therapeutic strategies. If a gradual distinction from nociception and inflammatory pain to neuropathic/functional pain may be validated, both nociception and inflammatory pain may be considered adaptive because of protective function and healing promotion, respectively, in contrast to neuropathic pain, considered to be maladaptive, as an expression of the pathologic response of the nervous system. In human beings as well as in animals (particularly vertebrates and mammals), adaptive nociceptive pain system is an early key alarm device, while maladaptive pain is an alarm system, constantly switched on, without emergency. Protective function avoids both insensitivity to pain that causes tissue damages, included self-induced mutilation, as well as constant alarm to innocuous stimuli that request higher threshold to become painful. In an evolutionary perspective, there is recent evidence that cold inhibits pain, and that both these are interoceptive sensations participating to homeostasis and survival. In nociceptive system, recent interesting advances occurred in human physiological and pharmacological mechanisms, including novel ionic channels, surgical pain, interoception, cortical representation, and psychological factors.
Allodynia ; analgesia ; animal ; evolution ; hyperalgesia ; pain
Settore VET/09 - Clinica Chirurgica Veterinaria
ago-2007
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/42184
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