痛みの測定

Abstract

Problems associated with two kinds of the pain measurement have been treated: one is for experimental pain and the other is for clinical pain. General explanations have been made concerning the measurement of experimental pain which can be produced by various kinds of noxious stimuli such as mechanical, electrical, thermal and chemical ones. Then, several representative examples of pain measurement both in the field of animal experiments and in human psychophysics have been introduced. The most quantitative method for evoking pain is based on the electrical stimulation. The methods of stimulation by temperature, such as Hardy's radiant heat, laser, thermode and so on, are also recognized as quantitatively excellent. Out of these, Hardy's radiant heat method is classical but most fundamental. With the use of modified type of Hardy's algometer, the phenomenon of deactivation has been presented, which can be observed when the heat stimuli are repeatedly delivered to the same loci on the skin of normal subjects. Furthermore the deactivation for the repeated stimuli has been more pronounced for some of the patients with pain complaints. The possibility for the clinical intrinsic pain to be measured objectively has been discussed in conjunction with the modulation of experimental pain by clinical pain.