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Allodynia

  1. Pain due to a stimulus which does not normally provoke pain.

    Allodynia is defined in terms of the response to clinical stimuli; the normal response to the stimulus could almost always be tested elsewhere in the body, usually in a corresponding part.

    Allodynia involves a change in the quality of a sensation, whether tactile, thermal, or of any other sort. The original modality is normally non-painful, but the response is painful. There is thus a loss of specificity of a sensory modality.
    By contrast, hyperalgesia represents an augmented response in a specific mode, viz., pain.

    See also: hyperalgesia.

    Reference: International Association for the Study of Pain. IASP Pain Terminology. Internet. Accessed August 20, 2009. Available at http://www.iasp-pain.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Pain_Definitions&Template=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&ContentID=1728


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