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This mnemonic can be helpful for medical and nursing students as it summarizes the key points of pain sensitization.
Pain sensitization refers to a process where repeated or prolonged stimuli to damaged or inflamed tissues lower the threshold for activating pain receptors, resulting in increased pain intensity and sensitivity to normally innocuous stimuli.
Inflammatory mediators play a crucial role in this process, contributing to the activation and sensitization of nerve cells in the spinal cord and peripheral nerves.
By remembering this mnemonic, students can quickly recall the important concepts related to pain sensitization and apply them in clinical practice.
This can be particularly useful in identifying and managing patients with chronic pain, where sensitization is a significant contributor to the patient’s pain experience.
By understanding the mechanisms of sensitization, students can also develop effective pain management strategies that address the underlying causes of pain and prevent its progression to chronic pain.
The Pain Sensitization Mnemonics :
- S – Stimuli: Intense, repeated, or prolonged stimuli applied to damaged or inflamed tissues.
- E – Excitability: Increase in excitability of nociceptor terminals due to the production, transport, and insertion of ion channels.
- N – Nerve cells: Enhanced excitability of nerve cells in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord leads to central sensitization.
- S – Sensitivity: Sensitization lowers the threshold for activation by mechanical, thermal, and chemical stimuli, causing increased pain intensity (hyperalgesia) and pain from normally innocuous stimuli (allodynia).
- I – Inflammatory mediators: Inflammatory mediators such as BK, nerve-growth factor, some prostaglandins (PGs), and leukotrienes contribute to the sensitization process.
- T – Tissues: Sensitization occurs at the level of the peripheral nerve terminal (peripheral sensitization) as well as at the level of the dorsal horn of the spinal cord (central sensitization).
- I – Insensitivity: Normally, deep tissue nociceptors are relatively insensitive to noxious stimuli, but under pathologic conditions, they become sensitive to mechanical stimulation.
- Z – Zest for pain: Sensitization is clinically important and contributes to tenderness, soreness, and hyperalgesia, leading to severe and debilitating pain.
Mnemonic: “SENSITIZ“
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