Small changes have been made to better describe Hyperpathia in the definition and note. A sentence has been added to the note on Hyperalgesia to refer to current views on its physiology, although as with other definitions, that for Hyperalgesia remains tied to clinical criteria. Last, the note on neuropathy has been expanded. An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage. The inability to communicate in no way negates the possibility that an individual is experiencing pain and is in need of appropriate pain relieving treatment.
Pain is always subjective.
Each individual learns the application of the word through experiences related to injury in early life. Biologists recognize that those stimuli which cause pain are liable to damage tissue. Accordingly, pain is that experience we associate with actual or potential tissue damage. It is unquestionably a sensation in a part or parts of the body, but it is also always unpleasant and therefore also an emotional experience. Experiences which resemble pain but are not unpleasant, e.g., pricking, should not be called pain.