Nociceptive pain: pain is caused by stimulation of sensory nerve fibres that respond to stimuli approaching or exceeding harmful intensity (nociceptors) and may be classified according to the mode of noxious stimulation. The most common categories are “thermal” (eg: heat or cold), “mechanical” (eg: crushing, tearing, shearing, etc) and “chemical” (eg: iodine in a cut or chemicals released during inflammation). Some nociceptors respond to more than one of these modalities and are consequently designated polymodal. Nociceptive pain typically changes with movement, position and load.

Common Examples:

• Osteoarthritis
• Ankle sprain
• Rheumatoid arthritis

Neuropathic pain: pain that arises from damage to the nervous system itself, central or peripheral, either from disease, injury, or physical irritation. The simplest neuropathies are mechanical insults, like hitting your funny bone or sciatica, but this is a big category: anything that damages neurons, from multiple sclerosis to chemotherapy to alcoholism to phantom limb pain. It’s often stabbing, electrical, itching or burning. Unfortunately, it’s also more likely to lead to chronic pain as nerves don’t heal well.

Common Examples:

• Diabetic neuropathy
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Complex regional pain syndrome

Nociplastic pain: pain which is mechanically different from the normal nociceptive pain, which caused by inflammation and tissue damage or the neuropathic pain, which results from nerve damage. It may occur in combination with the other types of pain or in isolation. Its location may be generalised or multifocal and it can be more intense than would be expected from any associated physical cause. Its causes are not fully understood but it is thought to be a dysfunction of the central nervous system whose processing of pain signals may have become distorted or sensitised.

Common Examples:

• Fibromyalgia
• Temporomandibular disorder
• Nonspecific low back pain

Psychogentic pain: pain that is caused, increased or prolonged by mental, emotional or behavioural factors. Sufferers are often stigmatised because they struggle to convince their medical practitioner or family member that pain emanating from a psychological can be a “real” source. However, pain specialists consider that it is no less real, or painful, than pain from any other source.

Common Examples:

• Headache
• Back pain
• Muscle pains
• Stomach pain