Nongonococcal urethritis ( NGU ) is inflammation of the urethra that is not caused by gonorrheal infection .
77-401: For treatment purposes, doctors usually classify infectious urethritis in two categories: gonococcal urethritis, caused by gonorrhea, and nongonococcal urethritis (NGU). The symptoms of urethritis can include pain or a burning sensation upon urination ( dysuria ), a white/cloudy discharge and a feeling that one needs to pass urine frequently. For men, the signs and symptoms are discharge from
154-486: A decreased appetite and decreased nutritional intake. A change in condition that deviates from baseline, such as moaning with movement or when manipulating a body part, and limited range of motion are also potential pain indicators. In patients who possess language but are incapable of expressing themselves effectively, such as those with dementia, an increase in confusion or display of aggressive behaviors or agitation may signal that discomfort exists, and further assessment
231-433: A cell wall. Yet, the types of antibiotics that can be used are quinolones, tetracyclines, and macrolides, since they affect a large part of the mycoplasma family of bacteria where U. urealyticum falls under. Yet, it is not recommended to be used a lot because these bacteria can develop resistance to these antibiotics fairly fast. Secondly, other drugs that have β-lactamases are infective to treat infection because of how fast
308-488: A credible and convincing signal of the need for relief, help, and care. Idiopathic pain (pain that persists after the trauma or pathology has healed, or that arises without any apparent cause) may be an exception to the idea that pain is helpful to survival, although some psychodynamic psychologists argue that such pain is psychogenic, enlisted as a protective distraction to keep dangerous emotions unconscious. In pain science, thresholds are measured by gradually increasing
385-431: A damaged body part while it heals, and to avoid similar experiences in the future. Most pain resolves once the noxious stimulus is removed and the body has healed, but it may persist despite removal of the stimulus and apparent healing of the body. Sometimes pain arises in the absence of any detectable stimulus, damage or disease. Pain is the most common reason for physician consultation in most developed countries. It
462-525: A higher risk of being stigmatized, leading to less urgent treatment of women based on social expectations of their ability to accurately report it. This has been postulated to lead to extended emergency room wait times for women and frequent dismissal of their ability to accurately report pain. Pain is a symptom of many medical conditions. Knowing the time of onset, location, intensity, pattern of occurrence (continuous, intermittent, etc.), exacerbating and relieving factors, and quality (burning, sharp, etc.) of
539-450: A lot of nutrients that let the bacteria grow from heart infusion to yeast extract, yet, it also has urea to help the bacteria to hydrolyze it and with hydrolyzing it causes the release of ammonia that causes the broth to change to a pink color ( 10B Broth - Thermo Fisher Scientific ). The reason for this is that it loves to live in urea-rich environments. It's the same reason why in clinics, they take urine samples or vaginal swabs to be sent to
616-454: A non-communicative person, observation becomes critical, and specific behaviors can be monitored as pain indicators. Behaviors such as facial grimacing and guarding (trying to protect part of the body from being bumped or touched) indicate pain, as well as an increase or decrease in vocalizations, changes in routine behavior patterns and mental status changes. Patients experiencing pain may exhibit withdrawn social behavior and possibly experience
693-399: A pH color change. If the dilution color changes to red it indicates that there is presence of U. urealyticum in the sample. After this, it should be transferred to the 10B Broth, where once placed it will turn yellow, but then slowly change the color to pink. This helps to indicate the growth of the bacterium(Waites, Ken B, et al 2012 ). The reason it can grow on this 10B Broth is because it has
770-436: A person who has NGU. NGU is more common in men than women. Men may have a discharge (strange liquid) from the penis, pain when urinating, and itching, irritation or tenderness around the opening of the penis. Women might not have any symptoms and may not know they have NGU until severe problems occur. Women might have discharge from the vagina, burning or pain when urinating, pain in the abdominal (stomach) area, or bleeding from
847-431: A phenomenon termed degenerative evolutions (Kallapur, Suhas G, et al 2013 ). This evolutionary trajectory has resulted in the loss of the peptidoglycan cell wall, a hallmark characteristic of Gram-positive bacteria. Despite this evolutionary divergence, instances have been reported where U. urealyticum, upon gram staining, exhibited the same characteristics as Gram-negative bacteria. Notably, despite such staining outcomes, it
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#1732858430838924-481: A product. Some strains originally classified as U. urealyticum should be treated as a new species, U. parvum . Both strains of U reaplasma urealyticum have had their DNA sequenced, using a PCR amplification and dideoxy termination method. Their sequences can be accessed through public records and databases. Most of the16S rDNA sequence of the two strains constitute the exact same nucleotides bases (97.3% homology), yet small differences have been acknowledged. Due to
1001-556: A reduction in negative affect . Across studies, participants that were subjected to acute physical pain in the laboratory subsequently reported feeling better than those in non-painful control conditions, a finding which was also reflected in physiological parameters. A potential mechanism to explain this effect is provided by the opponent-process theory . Before the relatively recent discovery of neurons and their role in pain, various body functions were proposed to account for pain. There were several competing early theories of pain among
1078-707: A result of decreased sensation. A much smaller number of people are insensitive to pain due to an inborn abnormality of the nervous system, known as " congenital insensitivity to pain ". Children with this condition incur carelessly-repeated damage to their tongues, eyes, joints, skin, and muscles. Some die before adulthood, and others have a reduced life expectancy. Most people with congenital insensitivity to pain have one of five hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathies (which includes familial dysautonomia and congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis ). These conditions feature decreased sensitivity to pain together with other neurological abnormalities, particularly of
1155-427: A specific cause for urethritis can't be identified, in which case a diagnosis of idiopathic urethritis is a diagnosis of exclusion . Treatment is based on the prescription and use of the proper antibiotics depending on the strain of the ureaplasma. Because of its multi-causative nature, initial treatment strategies involve using a broad range antibiotic that is effective against chlamydia (such as doxycycline ). It
1232-448: A state known as pain asymbolia, described as intense pain devoid of unpleasantness, with morphine injection or psychosurgery . Such patients report that they have pain but are not bothered by it; they recognize the sensation of pain but suffer little, or not at all. Indifference to pain can also rarely be present from birth; these people have normal nerves on medical investigations, and find pain unpleasant, but do not avoid repetition of
1309-409: A urinary catheter or a cystoscope ), or by an irritating chemical ( antiseptics or some spermicides ). It has been easy to test for the presence of gonorrhea by viewing a Gram stain of the urethral discharge under a microscope: The causative organism is distinctive in appearance; however, this works only with men because other non-pathogenic gram-negative microbes are present as normal flora of
1386-416: Is C. trachomatis . Historically, the terms idiopathic urethritis (US English) or non-specific urethritis (British English) have been used as synonyms for nongonococcal urethritis. " Idiopathic " and " non-specific " are medical term meaning "specific cause has not been identified", and in this case refers to the detection of urethritis, and the testing for but found negative of gonorrhea. In this sense,
1463-432: Is "pain that extends beyond the expected period of healing". Chronic pain may be classified as " cancer-related " or "benign." Allodynia is pain experienced in response to a normally painless stimulus. It has no biological function and is classified by characteristics of the stimuli as cold, heat, touch, pressure or a pinprick. Phantom pain is pain felt in a part of the body that has been amputated , or from which
1540-439: Is a bacterium belonging to the genus Ureaplasma and the family Mycoplasmataceae in the order Mycoplasmatales . This family consists of the genera Mycoplasma and Ureaplasma . Its type strain is T960. There are two known biovars of this species; T960 and 27. These strains of bacteria are commonly found as commensals in the urogenital tracts of human beings, but overgrowth can lead to infections that cause
1617-696: Is a common, reproducible tool in the assessment of pain and pain relief. The scale is a continuous line anchored by verbal descriptors, one for each extreme of pain where a higher score indicates greater pain intensity. It is usually 10 cm in length with no intermediate descriptors as to avoid marking of scores around a preferred numeric value. When applied as a pain descriptor, these anchors are often 'no pain' and 'worst imaginable pain". Cut-offs for pain classification have been recommended as no pain (0–4mm), mild pain (5–44mm), moderate pain (45–74mm) and severe pain (75–100mm). The Multidimensional Pain Inventory (MPI)
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#17328584308381694-642: Is a major symptom in many medical conditions, and can interfere with a person's quality of life and general functioning. People in pain experience impaired concentration, working memory , mental flexibility , problem solving and information processing speed, and are more likely to experience irritability, depression, and anxiety. Simple pain medications are useful in 20% to 70% of cases. Psychological factors such as social support , cognitive behavioral therapy , excitement, or distraction can affect pain's intensity or unpleasantness. First attested in English in 1297,
1771-493: Is a questionnaire designed to assess the psychosocial state of a person with chronic pain. Combining the MPI characterization of the person with their IASP five-category pain profile is recommended for deriving the most useful case description. Non-verbal people cannot use words to tell others that they are experiencing pain. However, they may be able to communicate through other means, such as blinking, pointing, or nodding. With
1848-400: Is also a great alternative to when a mother is pregnant so it does not cause harm to the fetus since It's using our immune system to help defend the fetus and the mother's body. To test for this bacterium, an agar plate, which is 10B broth, should be used on U. urealyticum. Since these bacteria love to grow in mostly acidic places, the bacteria should go under microdilution MIC dilution to get
1925-475: Is also associated with increased depression, anxiety, fear, and anger. If I have matters right, the consequences of pain will include direct physical distress, unemployment, financial difficulties, marital disharmony, and difficulties in concentration and attention… Although pain is considered to be aversive and unpleasant and is therefore usually avoided, a meta-analysis which summarized and evaluated numerous studies from various psychological disciplines, found
2002-574: Is caused by stimulation of sensory nerve fibers that respond to stimuli approaching or exceeding harmful intensity ( nociceptors ), and may be classified according to the mode of noxious stimulation. The most common categories are "thermal" (e.g. heat or cold), "mechanical" (e.g. crushing, tearing, shearing, etc.) and "chemical" (e.g. iodine in a cut or chemicals released during inflammation ). Some nociceptors respond to more than one of these modalities and are consequently designated polymodal. Ureaplasma urealyticum Ureaplasma urealyticum
2079-547: Is distinctly located also activates the primary and secondary somatosensory cortex . Spinal cord fibers dedicated to carrying A-delta fiber pain signals and others that carry both A-delta and C fiber pain signals to the thalamus have been identified. Other spinal cord fibers, known as wide dynamic range neurons , respond to A-delta and C fibers and the much larger, more heavily myelinated A-beta fibers that carry touch, pressure, and vibration signals. Ronald Melzack and Patrick Wall introduced their gate control theory in
2156-470: Is essential for protection from injury, and recognition of the presence of injury. Episodic analgesia may occur under special circumstances, such as in the excitement of sport or war: a soldier on the battlefield may feel no pain for many hours from a traumatic amputation or other severe injury. Although unpleasantness is an essential part of the IASP definition of pain, it is possible in some patients to induce
2233-565: Is imperative that both the patient and any sexual contacts be treated. Women infected with the organisms that cause NGU may develop pelvic inflammatory disease . If symptoms persist, follow-up with a urologist may be necessary to identify the cause. According to a study, tinidazole used with doxycycline or azithromycin may cure NGU better than when doxycycline or azithromycin is used alone. If left untreated, complications include epididymitis and infertility . Consistent and correct use of latex condoms during sexual activity greatly reduces
2310-438: Is imperative to recognize that the U. urealyticum remains a Gram-Positive bacterium, This discrepancy underscores the importance of discerning between staining outcomes and bacterial classification (“Ureaplasma Urealyticum.” Microbewiki ). As stated previously, since these bacteria are still considered Gram-positive, and lack a cell wall, the most versatile antibiotic that can’t be used is penicillin. Since these antibiotics attack
2387-403: Is initially described as burning or tingling but may evolve into severe crushing or pinching pain, or the sensation of fire running down the legs or of a knife twisting in the flesh. Onset may be immediate or may not occur until years after the disabling injury. Surgical treatment rarely provides lasting relief. Breakthrough pain is transitory pain that comes on suddenly and is not alleviated by
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2464-507: Is necessary. Changes in behavior may be noticed by caregivers who are familiar with the person's normal behavior. Infants do feel pain , but lack the language needed to report it, and so communicate distress by crying. A non-verbal pain assessment should be conducted involving the parents, who will notice changes in the infant which may not be obvious to the health care provider. Pre-term babies are more sensitive to painful stimuli than those carried to full term. Another approach, when pain
2541-421: Is often described as shooting, crushing, burning or cramping. If the pain is continuous for a long period, parts of the intact body may become sensitized, so that touching them evokes pain in the phantom limb. Phantom limb pain may accompany urination or defecation . Local anesthetic injections into the nerves or sensitive areas of the stump may relieve pain for days, weeks, or sometimes permanently, despite
2618-412: Is suspected, is to give the person treatment for pain, and then watch to see whether the suspected indicators of pain subside. The way in which one experiences and responds to pain is related to sociocultural characteristics, such as gender, ethnicity, and age. An aging adult may not respond to pain in the same way that a younger person might. Their ability to recognize pain may be blunted by illness or
2695-523: The autonomic nervous system . A very rare syndrome with isolated congenital insensitivity to pain has been linked with mutations in the SCN9A gene, which codes for a sodium channel ( Na v 1.7 ) necessary in conducting pain nerve stimuli. Experimental subjects challenged by acute pain and patients in chronic pain experience impairments in attention control, working memory capacity , mental flexibility , problem solving, and information processing speed. Pain
2772-405: The medial , paleospinothalamic tract . The neospinothalamic tract carries the fast, sharp A-delta signal to the ventral posterolateral nucleus of the thalamus . The paleospinothalamic tract carries the slow, dull C fiber pain signal. Some of the paleospinothalamic fibers peel off in the brain stem—connecting with the reticular formation or midbrain periaqueductal gray—and the remainder terminate in
2849-467: The 1965 Science article "Pain Mechanisms: A New Theory". The authors proposed that the thin C and A-delta (pain) and large diameter A-beta (touch, pressure, vibration) nerve fibers carry information from the site of injury to two destinations in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, and that A-beta fiber signals acting on inhibitory cells in the dorsal horn can reduce the intensity of pain signals sent to
2926-447: The 19th-century development of specificity theory . Specificity theory saw pain as "a specific sensation, with its own sensory apparatus independent of touch and other senses". Another theory that came to prominence in the 18th and 19th centuries was intensive theory , which conceived of pain not as a unique sensory modality, but an emotional state produced by stronger than normal stimuli such as intense light, pressure or temperature. By
3003-415: The C fibers. These A-delta and C fibers enter the spinal cord via Lissauer's tract and connect with spinal cord nerve fibers in the central gelatinous substance of the spinal cord . These spinal cord fibers then cross the cord via the anterior white commissure and ascend in the spinothalamic tract . Before reaching the brain, the spinothalamic tract splits into the lateral , neospinothalamic tract and
3080-577: The Cretaceous period. It was found that the most closely related species strain of Ureaplasma to Ureaplasma urealyticum was Ureaplasma diversum (isolated from bovine). U. urealyticum represents one of the 14 distinct types within the Ureaplasma genus. Classified within the Mollicutes class, Ureaplasma species have undergone significant evolutionary adaptations from their Gram-positive bacterial ancestors,
3157-657: The Human Papillomavirus (HPV). It has also been linked to infertility in both males and females. In addition, this pathogen may latently infect the chorionic villi tissues of pregnant women, thereby impacting pregnancy outcome. Issues that arise from Ureaplasma urealyticum infections during pregnancy include preterm birth and impacted embryonic development. Some patients have given birth to children subjected to bronchopulmonary dysplasia , Intraventricular hemorrhage , and necrotizing enterocolitis . Patients can evolve resistances to normal antibiotic treatments due to
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3234-429: The affective-motivational dimension. Thus, excitement in games or war appears to block both the sensory-discriminative and affective-motivational dimensions of pain, while suggestion and placebos may modulate only the affective-motivational dimension and leave the sensory-discriminative dimension relatively undisturbed. (p. 432) The paper ends with a call to action: "Pain can be treated not only by trying to cut down
3311-407: The ancient Greeks: Hippocrates believed that it was due to an imbalance in vital fluids . In the 11th century, Avicenna theorized that there were a number of feeling senses, including touch, pain, and titillation. In 1644, René Descartes theorized that pain was a disturbance that passed along nerve fibers until the disturbance reached the brain. The work of Descartes and Avicenna prefigured
3388-417: The bacteria's circular genome can mutate (Fan et al. 2023 ). However, there are new movements to use Azithromycin to treat these infections. This is a therapeutic that can be taken orally, once ingested our macrophages, which are part of our immune system, take up the antibiotic and deliver it to the sites of infection (Fan et al. 2023 ). This helps control the infection where the bacteria grows, additionally, it
3465-471: The brain no longer receives signals. It is a type of neuropathic pain. The prevalence of phantom pain in upper limb amputees is nearly 82%, and in lower limb amputees is 54%. One study found that eight days after amputation, 72% of patients had phantom limb pain, and six months later, 67% reported it. Some amputees experience continuous pain that varies in intensity or quality; others experience several bouts of pain per day, or it may reoccur less often. It
3542-506: The brain. In 1968, Ronald Melzack and Kenneth Casey described chronic pain in terms of its three dimensions: They theorized that pain intensity (the sensory discriminative dimension) and unpleasantness (the affective-motivational dimension) are not simply determined by the magnitude of the painful stimulus, but "higher" cognitive activities can influence perceived intensity and unpleasantness. Cognitive activities may affect both sensory and affective experience, or they may modify primarily
3619-413: The cell wall of a bacterium, they can not be used for this type of infection. The reason that many individuals get this infection can be damage to the uterus wall lining, causing the bacteria to thrive in a carbon-rich environment. Unfortunately, it was found from trials that many of the antibiotics that we utilize on a day-to-day basis for urinary tract infections do not affect the bacteria due to lacking
3696-405: The direct similarity and the increased variation in other species of Ureaplasma , it is thought that the two strains of Ureaplasma urealyticum (T960 and 27) have evolutionary diverged together. In the same study conducted, using the same 16s rDNA aligned sequences, they concluded all the mammalian strains diverged and coevolved with their corresponding species (canine, feline, human, bovine) during
3773-413: The drug wearing off in a matter of hours; and small injections of hypertonic saline into the soft tissue between vertebrae produces local pain that radiates into the phantom limb for ten minutes or so and may be followed by hours, weeks, or even longer of partial or total relief from phantom pain. Vigorous vibration or electrical stimulation of the stump, or current from electrodes surgically implanted onto
3850-400: The intensity of a stimulus in a procedure called quantitative sensory testing which involves such stimuli as electric current , thermal (heat or cold), mechanical (pressure, touch, vibration), ischemic , or chemical stimuli applied to the subject to evoke a response. The " pain perception threshold " is the point at which the subject begins to feel pain, and the "pain threshold intensity" is
3927-400: The intralaminar nuclei of the thalamus. Pain-related activity in the thalamus spreads to the insular cortex (thought to embody, among other things, the feeling that distinguishes pain from other homeostatic emotions such as itch and nausea) and anterior cingulate cortex (thought to embody, among other things, the affective/motivational element, the unpleasantness of pain), and pain that
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#17328584308384004-410: The labs to run this test on 10B broth. Ureaplasma urealyticum can cause urethritis and may cause bacterial vaginosis . Infection can occur in extragenital sites. A common symptom associated with these infections is the "fishy" smell that is created due to the production of ammonia by the hydrolysis of urea. Patients should confirm diagnosis with a doctor. The bacterium has high correlations with
4081-504: The likelihood of infection. Pain Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, actual or potential tissue damage." Pain motivates organisms to withdraw from damaging situations, to protect
4158-416: The likelihood of reporting pain. Patients may feel that certain treatments go against their religious beliefs. They may not report pain because they feel it is a sign that death is near. Many people fear the stigma of addiction, and avoid pain treatment so as not to be prescribed potentially addicting drugs. Many Asians do not want to lose respect in society by admitting they are in pain and need help, believing
4235-575: The mid-1890s, specificity was backed primarily by physiologists and physicians, and psychologists mostly backed the intensive theory . However, after a series of clinical observations by Henry Head and experiments by Max von Frey , the psychologists migrated to specificity almost en masse. By the century's end, most physiology and psychology textbooks presented pain specificity as fact. Some sensory fibers do not differentiate between noxious and non-noxious stimuli, while others (i.e., nociceptors ) respond only to noxious, high-intensity stimuli. At
4312-403: The most likely cause of NSU is a chlamydia infection . However, the term NSU is sometimes distinguished and used to mean that both gonorrhea and chlamydia have been ruled out. Thus, depending on the sense, chlamydia can either be the most likely cause or have been ruled out, and frequently detected organisms are Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma hominis . However, in 20-50% of cases,
4389-480: The noxious stimulus is removed or the underlying damage or pathology has healed. But some painful conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis , peripheral neuropathy , cancer , and idiopathic pain, may persist for years. Pain that lasts a long time is called " chronic " or "persistent", and pain that resolves quickly is called " acute ". Traditionally, the distinction between acute and chronic pain has relied upon an arbitrary interval of time between onset and resolution;
4466-400: The pain should be borne in silence, while other cultures feel they should report pain immediately to receive immediate relief. Gender can also be a perceived factor in reporting pain. Gender differences can be the result of social and cultural expectations, with, in some cultures, women expected to be more emotional and show pain, and men to be more stoic. As a result, female pain may be at
4543-487: The pain stimulus. Insensitivity to pain may also result from abnormalities in the nervous system . This is usually the result of acquired damage to the nerves, such as spinal cord injury , diabetes mellitus ( diabetic neuropathy ), or leprosy in countries where that disease is prevalent. These individuals are at risk of tissue damage and infection due to undiscovered injuries. People with diabetes-related nerve damage, for instance, sustain poorly-healing foot ulcers as
4620-400: The pain will help the examining physician to accurately diagnose the problem. For example, chest pain described as extreme heaviness may indicate myocardial infarction , while chest pain described as tearing may indicate aortic dissection . Functional magnetic resonance imaging brain scanning has been used to measure pain, and correlates well with self-reported pain. Nociceptive pain
4697-447: The patient discomfort. Unlike most bacteria, Ureaplasma urealyticum lacks a cell wall making it unique in physiology and medical treatment. The six recognised Ureaplasma species have a GC content of 27 to 30 percent and a genome size ranging from 0.76 to 1.17 million base pairs , and cholesterol is required for growth . A defining characteristic of the genus is that they perform urea hydrolysis , which creates ammonia as
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#17328584308384774-497: The patient's regular pain management . It is common in cancer patients who often have background pain that is generally well-controlled by medications, but who also sometimes experience bouts of severe pain that from time to time "breaks through" the medication. The characteristics of breakthrough cancer pain vary from person to person and according to the cause. Management of breakthrough pain can entail intensive use of opioids , including fentanyl . The ability to experience pain
4851-430: The penis, burning or pain when urinating, itching, irritation, or tenderness. In women, the signs and symptoms are discharge from vagina, burning or pain when urinating, anal or oral infections, abdominal pain, or abnormal vaginal bleeding, which may be an indication that the infection has progressed to Pelvic Inflammatory Disease . NGU is transmitted by touching the mouth, penis, vagina or anus by penis, vagina or anus of
4928-512: The peripheral end of the nociceptor, noxious stimuli generate currents that, above a given threshold, send signals along the nerve fiber to the spinal cord. The "specificity" (whether it responds to thermal, chemical, or mechanical features of its environment) of a nociceptor is determined by which ion channels it expresses at its peripheral end. So far, dozens of types of nociceptor ion channels have been identified, and their exact functions are still being determined. The pain signal travels from
5005-486: The periphery to the spinal cord along A-delta and C fibers. Because the A-delta fiber is thicker than the C fiber, and is thinly sheathed in an electrically insulating material ( myelin ), it carries its signal faster (5–30 m/s ) than the unmyelinated C fiber (0.5–2 m/s). Pain evoked by the A-delta fibers is described as sharp and is felt first. This is followed by a duller pain—often described as burning—carried by
5082-474: The question of why pain should have the quality of being painful. He describes the alternative as a mental raising of a "red flag". To argue why that red flag might be insufficient, Dawkins argues that drives must compete with one another within living beings. The most "fit" creature would be the one whose pains are well balanced. Those pains which mean certain death when ignored will become the most powerfully felt. The relative intensities of pain, then, may resemble
5159-537: The relative importance of that risk to our ancestors. This resemblance will not be perfect, however, because natural selection can be a poor designer . This may have maladaptive results such as supernormal stimuli . Pain, however, does not only wave a "red flag" within living beings but may also act as a warning sign and a call for help to other living beings. Especially in humans who readily helped each other in case of sickness or injury throughout their evolutionary history, pain might be shaped by natural selection to be
5236-654: The sensory input by anesthetic block, surgical intervention and the like, but also by influencing the motivational-affective and cognitive factors as well." (p. 435) Pain is part of the body's defense system, producing a reflexive retraction from the painful stimulus, and tendencies to protect the affected body part while it heals, and avoid that harmful situation in the future. It is an important part of animal life, vital to healthy survival. People with congenital insensitivity to pain have reduced life expectancy . In The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution , biologist Richard Dawkins addresses
5313-535: The spinal cord, all produce relief in some patients. Mirror box therapy produces the illusion of movement and touch in a phantom limb which in turn may cause a reduction in pain. Paraplegia , the loss of sensation and voluntary motor control after serious spinal cord damage, may be accompanied by girdle pain at the level of the spinal cord damage, visceral pain evoked by a filling bladder or bowel, or, in five to ten percent of paraplegics, phantom body pain in areas of complete sensory loss. This phantom body pain
5390-408: The stimulus intensity at which the stimulus begins to hurt. The " pain tolerance threshold" is reached when the subject acts to stop the pain. A person's self-report is the most reliable measure of pain. Some health care professionals may underestimate pain severity. A definition of pain widely employed in nursing, emphasizing its subjective nature and the importance of believing patient reports,
5467-601: The triad of arthritis , conjunctivitis , and urethritis is seen. The most common bacterial cause of NGU is Chlamydia trachomatis , but it can also be caused by Ureaplasma urealyticum , Haemophilus vaginalis , Mycoplasma genitalium , Mycoplasma hominis , Neisseria meningitidis , Gardnerella vaginalis , Acinetobacter lwoffii , Acinetobacter calcoaceticus , and E.coli . Herpes simplex virus , Adenovirus , Cytomegalovirus Candida Albicans Parasitic causes include Trichomonas vaginalis (rare). Urethritis can be caused by mechanical injury (from
5544-460: The two most commonly used markers being 3 months and 6 months since the onset of pain, though some theorists and researchers have placed the transition from acute to chronic pain at 12 months. Others apply "acute" to pain that lasts less than 30 days, "chronic" to pain of more than six months' duration, and "subacute" to pain that lasts from one to six months. A popular alternative definition of "chronic pain", involving no arbitrarily fixed duration,
5621-410: The use of medication . Depression may also keep older adult from reporting they are in pain. Decline in self-care may also indicate the older adult is experiencing pain. They may be reluctant to report pain because they do not want to be perceived as weak, or may feel it is impolite or shameful to complain, or they may feel the pain is a form of deserved punishment. Cultural barriers may also affect
5698-401: The vagina in women. Thus, one of the major causes of urethritis can be identified (in men) by a simple common test, and the distinction between gonococcal and non-gonococcal urethritis arose for this reason. Non-gonococcal urethritis (NGU) is diagnosed if a person with urethritis has no signs of gonorrhea bacteria on laboratory tests. In men, the most frequent cause of NGU (15%-55% of cases)
5775-403: The vagina that is not from a monthly period. (This may be an sign that NGU has become worse and turned into Pelvic Inflammatory Disease, or PID). There are many causes of NGU. This is in part due to the large variety of organisms living in the urinary tract. Ureaplasma urealyticum and Mycoplasma genitalium are some of the culprits. NGU is also associated with reactive arthritis , in which
5852-542: The word peyn comes from the Old French peine , in turn from Latin poena meaning "punishment, penalty" (also meaning "torment, hardship, suffering" in Late Latin) and that from Greek ποινή ( poine ), generally meaning "price paid, penalty, punishment". The International Association for the Study of Pain recommends using specific features to describe a patient's pain: Pain is usually transitory, lasting only until
5929-542: Was introduced by Margo McCaffery in 1968: "Pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever he says it does". To assess intensity, the patient may be asked to locate their pain on a scale of 0 to 10, with 0 being no pain at all, and 10 the worst pain they have ever felt. Quality can be established by having the patient complete the McGill Pain Questionnaire indicating which words best describe their pain. The visual analogue scale
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