Fundamentals of the modern theory of the phenomenon of “pain” in terms of a systematic approach to issues its psychological component. Terminology of the systemic approach and a brief representation of the human body as a system

• Main Authors: V. I. Poberezhnyi, O. V. Marchuk, O. S. Shvidyuk, I. Y. Petrik
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Interdisciplinary Academy of Pain Medicine 2018-08-01
• Series: Медицина болю
• Subjects: “pain” phenomenon; psychophysiological phenomenon; mental process; emotion; sensation; human body; system; functional system approach; structural and functional organization; functional system; regulatory center
• Online Access: https://painmedicine.org.ua/index.php/pnmdcn/article/view/97
• ISSN: 2414-3812; 2519-2752

“Pain” is psychophysiological phenomenon, that is actualized in the mind of a person as a result of a systemic reaction to a certain external and internal stimuli. The pain is caused by morphological and functional disorders in the body and is accompanied by changes in person’s psychic state and behavior. Three components are distinguished in the phenomenon of “pain”: nocigenic (somatogenic), neurogenic (neuropathic) and psychogenic. The psychical and physiological components are distinguished only within emotions and sensations among all mental processes. The formation of connections and relationships between their components occurs on the basis of neurophysiological processes. Emotions and feelings of a person are inseparably linked with the corresponding physiological processes of the body, which, in turn, are a reflection of a certain form of the systemic structural and functional organization. From the point of view of the functional system approach, the human body is an exposed, nonlinear, self-organizing, self-regulating, self-learning, permanently evolving, dynamic system that exists in inseparable connection and constant interaction with the environment. Elements of its systemic structural and functional organization are certain functional systems of the corresponding hierarchical levels. Regulatory centers are one of the main elements of the human organism’s functional systems, their activities realize the processes of their self-organization and self-regulation. In functional systems at the cellular, tissue, organ and organism levels of its systemic organization, the regulatory centers are the neuronal-synaptic organizations of the structural formations of the peripheral and central nervous system. Nervous system of the person integrates and coordinates the processes of sensitivity, activity of its effector structure formations and motion activity, accordingly to the conditions of its internal and external environment. Realization of its functions as a whole and in full is possible only in inseparable interrelation and mutual relation, coordinated interaction and interconsistency with endocrine and immune-competent systems. The ways and means of intercellular communication are the basis for the processes of integration and coordination of the activity of effector and structural formations of the human body.