Nociplastic Pain, Small Fiber Neuropathy & Chronic Low Back Pain
Nociplastic pain is “pain that arises from altered nociception despite no clear evidence of actual or threatened tissue damage causing the activation of peripheral nociceptors or evidence for disease or lesion of the somatosensory system causing the pain” (Kosek et al 2016).
Central sensitization is a central process to this experience. Central sensitization encompasses impaired functioning of inhibitory, descending anti-nociceptive mechanisms (Meeus et al., 2008), and over activation of descending and ascending pain facilitatory pathways (Staud et al., 2007, Meeus...