Journal of Pain Management & Medicine

Muscle Hyperalgesia

Muscle hyperalgesia occurs when either noxious or ordinarily innocuous stimulation of muscle evokes a state of increased pain sensation.

Hyperalgesia always involves a noxious stimulus, it just becomes more painful when hyperalgesia is present. The noxious stimulus activates nociceptors in the periphery that then send the signal onto the spinal cord. Hyperalgesia involves an amplification of the pain signal. This amplification can occur in the periphery (e.g. the nociceptor is sensitized by an irritant, by inflammation or by disease) or in the spinal cord (via an amplification of synaptic transmission between the nociceptor and the dorsal horn neuron that sends the signal to the brain) or in both locations. There are some cases where the amplification is thought to occur in higher brain centers as well. This can happen, for instance, after a stroke.

Related Journals of Muscle Hyperalgesia

Journal of Pain & Symptom Management, Journal of Pain Management, Journal of Pain & Relief, Journal of Neurological Disorders, Muscle and Nerve, Journal of Muscle Research and Cell Motility, Journal of Smooth Muscle Research, Skeletal Muscle