Editorial: Mechanisms and New Targets for the Treatment of Chronic Pain.

Abstract

Nociceptive pain has a physiological protective role in preventing tissue injury. However, pain can become chronic due to a multitude of pathophysiological states, such as: inflammation, nerve injury, tumors, infections, autoimmune diseases, and vascular and metabolic disorders. These pathological states can trigger alterations of the pain pathways that can lead to painful hypersensitivity, and in such circumstances, pain loses its protective role and instead, becomes chronic, pathologic, and it can be extremely debilitating for people who suffer from it (Basbaum et al., 2009). Chronic pain has recently been defined as pain that persists or recurs for more than 3 months (Treede et al., 2019)