Neurogenic and nonneurogenic pain and inflammatory mediators.

Pain is not a simple perception. Although millions of people suffer because of it and billions of dollars are spent trying to eradicate it, we are only in our infancy of understanding the very complex interactions necessary to perceive or distort our feelings of pain. We must continue to seek a better understanding of not only our patients' macroscopic impression of pain, but we must look microscopically at each cell involved in the whole of the pain process. A time will come when our molecular understanding will provide us with the means to unlock the secrets of pain. We have come a long way since the time of Descartes in our understanding of the neurophysiology and anatomy of pain, but we have a great deal more work to do if we are going to provide our patients with better remedies in the future.