[Pain and its pathways. A study for therapeutic action].

Pain is as old as mankind. It has a threshold beyond which nobody can escape it. Pain is a biological and physiological phenomenon, an integrated part of our body and ego. Will all our efforts eventually make it disappear? Is its disappearance desirable? Pain is one of the major expressions of sensation. It is integrated by the central structures and expressed as a behavior of avoidance or attenuation of the effects produced by the cause of pain. The study of this behavior and of the transmission of the pain message corresponds to the study of how to fight against this message, which means that it should logically lead to the treatment of pain.