2019 New Definition of Pain:

An aversive sensory and emotional experience typically caused by, or resembling that caused by, actual or potential tissue injury.

 

• Pain is always a subjective experience that is influenced to varying degrees by biological, psychological, and social factors.

• Pain and nociception are different phenomena: the experience of pain cannot be reduced to activity in sensory pathways.

• Through their life experiences, individuals learn the concept of pain and its applications.

• A person’s report of an experience as pain should be accepted as such and respected.

• Although pain usually serves an adaptive role, it may have adverse effects on function and social and psychological well-being.

• Verbal description is only one of several behaviors to express pain; inability to communicate does not negate the possibility that a human or a non-human animal experiences pain.