Towards the Neurobiology of Chronic Pain

List of contributors. Preface. Acknowledgements. Section I. Psychobiology of Acute and Chronic Pain. 1. From acute to chronic pain: mechanisms and hypotheses (F. Cervero, J.M.A. Laird). 2. Quantitative experimental assessment of pain and hyperalgesia in animals and underlying neural mechanisms (E. Carstens). 3. Nociceptive, environmental and neuroendocrine factors determining pain behaviour in animals (A.M. Aloisi, G. Carli). 4. Functional imaging studies of the pain system in man and animals (C.A. Porro, M. Cavazzuti). 5. Limbic processes and the affective dimension of pain (C.R. Chapman). II. Neuropeptides, Inflammation and Neuropathic Injuries. 6. Neurogenic mechanisms and neuropeptides in chronic pain (A. Dray). 7. Peripheral opioid analgesia - facts and mechanisms (A. Herz). 8. Alterations in the functional properties of dorsal root ganglion cells with unmyelinated axons after a chronic nerve constriction in the rat (R.H. LaMotte et al.). 9. Plasticity of messenger function in primary afferents following nerve injury - implications for neuropathic pain (Z. Wiesenfeld-Hallin, X.-J. Xu). 10. The possible role of substance P in eliciting and modulatig deep somatic pain (S. Mense, U. Hoheisel, A. Reinert). 11. Studies of the release of immunoreactive galanin and dynorphin A(1-8) in the spinal cord of the rat (A.W. Duggan, R.C. Riley). III. Neurotransmitters and Plasticity. 12. Cooperative mechanisms of neurotransmitter action in central nervous sensitization (W.D. Willis et al.). 13. Neurophysiology of chronic inflammatory pain: electrophysiological recordings from spinal cord neurons in rats with prolonged acute and chronic unilateral inflammation at the ankle (H.-G. Schaible, R.F. Schmidt). 14. Acute mechanical hyperalgesia in the rat can be produced by coactivation of spinal ionotropic AMPA and metabotropic glutamate receptors, activation of phospholipase A2 and generation of cyclooxygenase products (S.T. Meller et al.). 15. Involvement of glutamatergic neurotransmission and protein kinase C in spinal plasticity and the development of chronic pain (T.R. Tölle et al.). 16. Neurobiology of spinal nociception: new concepts (J. Sandkühler). 17. Balances between excitatory and inhibitory events in the spinal cord and chronic pain (A.H. Dickenson). 18. Plasticity of the nervous system at the systemic, cellular and molecular levels: a mechanism of chronic pain and hyperalgesia (M. Zimmermann, T. Herdegen). Subject Index.