Pain is the unpleasant and aversive feeling common to such experiences as a stubbed toe, a headache, a burnt finger, and salt in a wound. Typically, pain is characterized by its intensity, location and duration. It is initiated by stimulation of nociceptors in the peripheral nervous system, or by damage to or malfunction of the peripheral or central nervous systems. Cultural values, hypnotic suggestion, and cognitive activities such as distraction or appraisal can all significantly modulate pain's intensity and unpleasantness. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage".
This often quoted definition was first published in 1979 by IASP in 'Vol 6 of the journal Pain, page 250. It is derived from a definition of pain given earlier by Harold Merskey: "An unpleasant experience that we primarily associate with tissue damage or describe in terms of tissue damage or both." Merskey, H. (1964) An Investigation of Pain in Psychological Illness, DM Thesis, Oxford. A definition widely employed in nursing, emphasizing the subjective nature of pain and the importance of believing patient reports, was introduced by Margo McCaffery in 1968: "Pain is whatever the experiencing person says it is, existing whenever he says it does". '

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