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Written by
Marcia L. Meldrum
Researcher, Department of History, University of California, Los Angeles; Co-Director, John C. Liebeskind History of Pain Collection, Louise M. Darling Biomedical Library, Geffen School of Medicine, University...
Marcia L. Meldrum
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Britannica Editors
Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree....
Britannica Editors
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pain, complex experience consisting of a physiological and a psychological response to a noxious stimulus. Pain is a warning mechanism that protects an organism by influencing it to withdraw from harmful stimuli; it is primarily associated with injury or the threat of injury. Pain is subjective and difficult to quantify, because it has both an affective and a sensory component. Although the neuroanatomic basis of pain reception develops before birth, individual pain responses are learned...

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