PSY 325 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Osteoarthritis, Phantom Limb, Autoimmune Disease
Document Summary
Structures in the spinal cord, a gate for the sensory input, the brain interprets as pain: gate control trigger: nerve impulses that descend from the brain & influence the gate mechanism. For ex, distraction/relaxation could cause the gate to close, causing a in pain. The measurement of pain: ways to measure pain. Self-report: ask people to evaluate & make ratings of their pain using: rating scales, such as the visual analog scale, where people rate their pain. Pain questionnaires: people are asked to make certain distinctions about their pain. Physiological measures: electromyography (emg): measures level of muscle tension, as pain may tension, heart rate: predicts perception of pain, but only for men, overall, physiological assessments may not be as valid as self-report/observational methods. Pain syndromes: >30% of people in the us experience chronic/intermittent(inconsistent) persistent pain, chronic pain is categorized as a syndrome - symptoms that occur together.
