prepain

1. uncountableA physical sensation that is not pain but would become pain if it were more intense.

   You can learn what to do at the first signals of prepain and thereby avoid the true disability that accompany a fullblown attack.

   2016, Mary Pullig Schatz, Back Care Basics

   3 more examples

   Mostly the subjects experienced either no sensation at all, or pain; only a very small prepain range was found (a just noticeable tactile sensation, as described in Chapter 27).

   1984, Burkhart Bromm, Pain Measurement in Man: Neurophysiological Correlates of Pain, page 443

   As described above, pain and prepain are the only sensations that can be evoked by intradental nerve stimulation in human subjects.

   2002, Kenneth M. Hargreaves, Harold E. Goodis, Seltzer and Bender's Dental Pulp, page 168

   Even in trained normal subjects, the pain threshold, where prepain becomes just noticeably painful, is a composite of nuances and is difficult to judge.

   2012, Winston C.V. Parris, Contemporary Issues in Chronic Pain Management, page 138

comparative more prepain · superlative most prepain

1. Before the onset of pain.

   Assessment of prepain functioning often provides insights into behavioral, cognitive, and affective responses subsequent to pain onset.

   1983, Dennis C. Turk, Donald Meichenbaum, Myles Genest, Pain and Behavioral Medicine: A Cognitive-Behavioral Perspective, page 202

   2 more examples

   After a diagnosis of pain has been made, the critical care nurse organizes nursing interventions around three categories: prepain experience, actual pain experience, and postpain experience.

   1986, Sharon L. Roberts, Behavioral Concepts and the Critically Ill Patient, page 15

   Having described these two patterns to the patients, it is important to point out that with a contiuation of these patterns [see Figure 14.1(i) and (ii)] neither group will return to their prepain activity levels .

   1996, Clare Philips, Stanley Rachman, The Psychological Management of Chronic Pain: A Treatment Manual, page 177