Pain emotion and homeostasis

Abstract

Pain has always been considered as part of a defensive strategy, whose specific role is to signal an immediate, active danger. This definition partially fits acute pain, but certainly not chronic pain, that is maintained also in the absence of an active noxa or danger and that nowadays is considered a disease by itself. Moreover, acute pain is not only an automatic alerting system, but its severity and characteristics can change depending on the surrounding environment. The affective, emotional components of pain have been and are the object of extensive attention and research by psychologists, philosophers, physiologists and also pharmacologists. Pain itself can be considered to share the same genesis as emotions and as a specific emotion in contributing to the maintenance of the homeostasis of each unique subject. Interestingly, this role of pain reaches its maximal development in the human; some even argue that it is specific for the human primate.