Clinical pain is an important public health problem world wide. It is vital to understand the pain mechanism contributing to acute and chronic levels. It is noted that the inter-individual variability as the most crucial factor of pain prediction.
Wasana, not clear exactly what you are asking here. Pain is extremely complex, and a physiological process strongly influenced by perceptual processes, particularly so in chronic pain. The meaning of acute pain is injury avoidance or damage notification; that of chronic pain is much more ambiguous. Pain comprises several components, not only nociception (physical sensation). Cognitive, motivational, emotional and communicative elements make up the "pie" of pain. Numerous studies show that expectations and anxiety, mood and other psychological dimensions all modify both degree of reported pain and amount of self-medicaltion with different analgesics. People who are anxious and depressed report more pain, irrespective of the level of nociception. Phantom limb pain illustrates that pain is a central process as much as it is due to peripheral release of inflammatory agents at the injury site. Changes to the local biochemical environment occur but cognitive and emotional changes interact to confer different meanings on the nociception. So chronic pain from disc herniation can be as severe as that from cancer, sometimes worse, but the meaning of the two are completely different and this affects the resultant experience of suffering. All of this needs disentangling. Good pain control requires good psychological skill as well as pharmacological knowledge.
Nice explanation.. I am working on fMRI and pain domain. The question I asked might be little broad. But I wanted to build a nice forum on what kind of barriers are encountered at pain differentiation and prediction using current imaging technologies. One major aspect you mentioned is well known and it (Psychological dimension) has a greater impact in pain and its variability among individuals.
This is a broad and interesting question. I think that an initial approach to initial pain should include the study of the theory of Melzack neuromatrix.
This matter is precise imperative because we just feel he/she feel pain but we can't measure by test to accurate level of pain that can kill he/she or pain killer need or not.
There is a similar question on Quora with some insights on Microglias. It is more linked to chronic pain and so called "Fibromyalgia" or "Pain wind up" mechanisms...
https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-promising-experimental-treatments-of-chronic-pain
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