疼痛是一种感觉，也是一种生理和心理过程。
疼痛是身体防御系统的一部分。身体在接受痛性刺激时启动疼痛反应系统以规避即时伤害，并帮助调整行为以避免未来的伤害。疼痛对身体健康和个体生存具有极其重要的意义，人体对疼痛的感受和反应也受到文化，宗教和社会家庭环境的影响。
国际疼痛研究协会疼痛学术语分委会对疼痛的学术定义为：
疼痛是一种不愉快的感觉和情感体验。这种体验可以与已实际发生的，或潜在可能的组织损伤相关联，也可以是被描述为组织损伤的体验。
当前医疗界的基本共识是：疼痛不仅是许多疾病的症状，疼痛本身就是一种疾病。疼痛同体温，呼吸，血压和心律一样重要，被视为第五生命体征。
Pain is a sensational perception. It is also a physical and psychological process.
Pain takes part in the body’s defense system. When facing nociceptive stimulus, the body may start its pain-responsive reaction system in order to incidental injury, and to adjust the individual’s behavioral pattern to avoid potential harm in the future. Pain reaction is extremely important for the individual’s physical health and survival. The perception and reaction to pain is also modified by the influence from culture, religion, and social environment.
The International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) Task Force on Taxonomy provided an academic definition for pain as:
An unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage. International Association for the Study of Pain: Pain, 1979, 6, p. 250
The current consensual understanding in the medical field is: Pain is not only a symptom of many diseases. Pain is a disease entity by itself. Pain has also been viewed as one of the essential vital signs, along with temperature, respiration, blood pressure, and heart rate.
疼痛医学涵盖的领域包括疼痛的生理和心理研究，预防，临床评估和治疗。
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