TERMS FOR DISCOMFORT

Pain Term

Definition and Common verbal Descriptors

Allodynia

Painful response to an innocuous stimulus

Analgesia

Absence of pain to a noxious stimulus

Dysesthesia

Unpleasant abnormal sensation (spontaneous or evoked) – descriptors include: tender, pricking, stinging, burning, electric, cold

Hyperalgesia

Increased painful response to a noxious stimulus

Hyperpathia

Explosive abnormal pain that outlasts a noxious stimulus

Hypoesthesia

Reduced sensation to stimulation – descriptors include: numb, rubber, swollen, wooden

Neuralgia

Pain in the distribution of a specific nerve

Neuropathic pain

Spontaneous pain caused by a lesion or disease of a somatosensory nervous system – involves sharp paroxysmal pain not associated with painful stimuli – descriptor include: throbbing, electric shock, burning, excruciating, wrenching

Paresthesia

Abnormal sensation (spontaneous or evoked) that is not unpleasant – descriptor include: tingling, tickling, itching, crawling