Nociceptive Pain

What is nociceptive pain?

Nociceptive pain is the discomfort you feel after an injury or damage to your body’s tissues. You might feel sensations like:

• Aching.
• Burning.
• Cramping.
• Stabbing.
• Throbbing.

You’ve probably tripped and scraped your elbow or stubbed your toe before. Immediately after the injury, you feel pain. Healthcare providers call this nociceptive pain because the injury wakes up nerve endings on your peripheral nerves called nociceptors. These nerve endings communicate with your brain to let it know that something’s wrong. It’s the most common type of pain people feel.

What are the types of nociceptive pain?

There are two main types of nociceptive pain:

• Somatic nociceptive pain: When you can point to the specific location of your pain, it’s somatic nociceptive pain. You might feel it in your skin, muscles, bones or connective tissue. For example, you feel a throbbing sensation on your skin after a cut or an ache in your muscle after overuse.
• Visceral nociceptive pain: When you can’t specifically pinpoint the pain because it affects your internal organs, it’s visceral nociceptive pain. You might feel aching in your stomach area if you have a tumor pressing against your gastrointestinal tract, for example.

What are nociceptive pain phases?

Nociceptive pain happens in phases. The phases are your body’s way of detecting harm. These include:

• Transduction: Something harms your body. Your body releases chemicals and your nerve endings (nociceptors) convert these into electrical signals.
• Transmission: The signals move from the site of the injury to your brain on nociceptive pathways (a road to your brain).
• Modulation: Your brain sends signals to your nerves to adjust the sensation (intensity) of pain you feel.
• Perception: You’re aware of the pain and you feel it.

Your body goes through these phases so quickly that you probably don’t realize they’re happening. The only phase you’re conscious of is perception — when you feel pain.

Your brain responds by getting you out of harm’s way. This is the nociceptive reaction or reflex. For example, you might quickly jump backward, away from the chair that you stubbed your toe on. Your brain is constantly trying to protect your body from harm. Nociceptive pain signaling is how it does this.

What causes nociceptive pain?

Any tissue damage to your body causes nociceptive pain. This includes damage to your:

• Bones.
• Joints.
• Ligaments and tendons.
• Muscles.
• Organs.
• Skin.

Causes of nociceptive pain could include (but aren’t limited to) the following:

• Physical trauma (an injury).
• Surgery.
• Chemical contact.
• Temperature changes (hot and cold).

What are examples of nociceptive pain?

You might feel nociceptive pain after the following:

• Cuts (paper cuts, a scraped knee or lacerations).
• Broken bones (after falls, accidents or physical trauma).
• Bruises (bumping into a hard surface or getting hit with a flying object).
• Burns (from touching a hot surface or interacting with dangerous chemicals).
• Inflammation (from a chronic condition like arthritis or psoriasis).
• Infections (from bacteria, viruses or fungi).
• Sprains or strains (rolling your ankle during a sport or overworking your muscles).

How is nociceptive pain treated?

Pain management for nociceptive pain varies based on what caused the pain and the severity of tissue damage. It could include:

• Caring for a wound and wearing a wound dressing (bandage).
• Wearing a brace, sling or cast.
• Using a heating pad or ice (hot and cold therapy).
• Resting and avoiding any strenuous physical activity.
• Participating in physical therapy.
• Taking medications (like pain relievers).

While you can treat many causes of nociceptive pain at home, a healthcare provider can help you treat severe pain in an emergency setting or chronic (long-lasting) pain during an office visit.

What are the possible complications of not treating nociceptive pain?

As there’s a wide range of possible causes of nociceptive pain, the complications vary. Mild cases of nociceptive pain may go away without treatment, like if you get a small bruise after bumping into a hard surface. If an infection causes pain and you don’t receive timely treatment, the infection can spread to other parts of your body, which can be dangerous.

If you experience an injury and are unsure what type of treatment is best, contact a healthcare provider.

Can nociceptive pain be prevented?

You can’t prevent all causes of nociceptive pain because many are accidental. But you can reduce your risk of injury by:

• Following a safe physical activity plan.
• Stretching before and after physical activities.
• Wearing protective equipment (like a helmet or gloves) when necessary.
• Removing tripping hazards from your living space.
• Using caution when holding or using sharp or hazardous objects.

When should nociceptive pain be treated by a healthcare provider?

Talk to a healthcare provider if you have:

• Severe pain.
• Long-lasting, persistent pain.
• Pain that returns after treatment.
• Pain that continues after at-home treatments (like taking an over-the-counter pain reliever as directed).