Human health and medicine

Pain Clinics

Pain clinics, also called pain centers or acute pain services, are facilities providing multidisciplinary diagnostic, therapeutic, and palliative care for severe chronic pain; pioneered by John Bonica in the 1950s–1960s and standardized by IASP guidelines.

Pain disorders

Pain disorders are conditions in which pain is the central clinical problem, coded 8E43 in ICD-11's nervous system chapter and classified broadly under chronic pain (MG30) as primary or secondary pain lasting over three months.

Pain in limb

Pain in limb (ICD-11 FB56.4; ICD-10-CM M79.6) is a WHO symptom code for unpleasant sensory and emotional experience from actual or potential limb tissue damage, with exclusions for chronic primary and secondary musculoskeletal pain.

Pain in penis

Pain in penis (ICD-11 MF40.00), any penile pain or discomfort; causes include priapism, Peyronie's disease, urethritis, balanitis, trauma, penile fracture, and referred or neuropathic pain; priapism and fracture are emergencies.

Pain in throat or chest

Pain in throat or chest (ICD-11 MD30) is a WHO symptom code covering throat pain and chest pain, with child codes MD30.0 and MD30.1; chest pain drives over 6.5 million US emergency visits yearly.

Pain management

Pain management (pain medicine): health care field for assessing and reducing pain, defined by IASP as an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience. Covers biopsychosocial care, multidisciplinary programs, CBT plus exercise, nonopioid and opioid treatments, and the CDC 2022 opioid guideline.

Pain reprocessing therapy

Pain reprocessing therapy (PRT) is a psychological treatment for primary chronic pain that helps patients reattribute pain to nondangerous brain activity rather than tissue injury.

Pain scale

Pain scale: instruments for measuring pain intensity, chiefly the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), Verbal Rating Scale (VRS), Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Wong-Baker FACES, and observational scales like FLACC and PAINAD for nonverbal patients.

Pain suisse

Pain suisse (brioche suisse, pépito) is a rectangular French viennoiserie of leavened flaky pastry filled with vanilla crème pâtissière and chocolate chips; despite the name it is not Swiss and is a variant of pain au chocolat or pain aux raisins.

Pain Threshold

Pain threshold: the minimum stimulus intensity perceived as painful (IASP definition); distinct from pain tolerance. Measured psychophysically via QST methods of limits or levels, with pressure, thermal, and electrical stimuli; reliability varies by modality.

Painkiller (TV series)

Painkiller is a 2023 Netflix six-episode limited drama series about the opioid crisis and Purdue Pharma's OxyContin, created by Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster, directed by Peter Berg, starring Matthew Broderick, Uzo Aduba, and Taylor Kitsch, based on Barry Meier's book and Patrick Radden Keefe's New Yorker article; distinct from the Paramount+ docuseries Painkiller: The Tylenol Murders.

Painless thyroiditis

Painless thyroiditis, also called silent or subacute lymphocytic thyroiditis, is an autoimmune thyroid inflammation causing transient thyrotoxicosis without neck pain, often followed by a hypothyroid phase.

Paired associative stimulation

Paired associative stimulation (PAS) is a noninvasive brain stimulation protocol pairing peripheral nerve stimuli with transcranial magnetic stimulation to induce lasting cortical plasticity, introduced by Stefan in 2000.

Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences

Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Islamabad, Pakistan's public national referral tertiary care hospital, planned 1960s, opened 1985, with Islamabad, Children's, Cardiac, Burn, and MCH hospitals; distinct from PIMS Peshawar.

PAKMGTEST study

PAKMGTEST (NCT04130620), a completed observational study validating an applied kinesiology magnesium muscle stretch test against red blood cell magnesium levels in 50 chiropractic patients; no results posted.

Palasa Ksara

Palasa Ksara (Palāśa Kṣāra, Palasha Kshara) is an Ayurvedic alkaline preparation of Butea monosperma ash and water, standardized in the Ayurvedic Formulary of India (pH 10-12) and studied for urinary stones, hemorrhoids, and fistula.

Palasabijadi Curna

Palasabijadi Curna (Palāśabījādi cūrṇa), a classical Ayurvedic powder formulation led by Butea monosperma seed with Embelia ribes, Holarrhena pubescens, Swertia chirata, and a fifth ingredient recorded variously as Citrus limon or Azadirachta indica seed; AFI dose 1-3 g, used traditionally for worm infections and kidney stones.

Palatal expansion

Palatal expansion, also called maxillary expansion, is an orthodontic treatment that widens the upper jaw at the midpalatal suture, correcting narrow palates and posterior crossbites.

Palatal myoclonus

Palatal myoclonus, also called palatal tremor, is a rare movement disorder with rhythmic 0.5-5 Hz contractions of the soft palate. Two forms: essential (tensor veli palatini, ear clicks, no lesion) and symptomatic (Guillain-Mollaret triangle lesion, often post-stroke).

Palatal Obturators

Palatal obturators are removable prostheses closing palatal defects from cleft palate or maxillectomy, separating oral and nasal cavities to restore speech, swallowing, and appearance; first described by Lusitanus in 1560.

Palate

The palate (palatum) is the roof of the mouth and floor of the nasal cavities, divided into bony hard palate and muscular soft palate (velum); key facts include trigeminal sensory innervation, greater palatine artery supply, and week 6 to 12 human palatogenesis.

Palate re-repair

Palate re-repair is a revision operation that re-dissects and repositions the velar muscles of a previously repaired cleft palate to correct persistent velopharyngeal insufficiency, proposed as an alternative to pharyngeal flap or sphincter pharyngoplasty.

Palate repair

Palate repair, also called cleft palate repair or palatoplasty, is the surgical closure of a cleft palate, typically done when a child is 4 to 18 months old.

Palatine tonsil

Palatine tonsil (faucial tonsil), paired oropharyngeal lymphoid tissue of Waldeyer ring between the palatoglossal and palatopharyngeal arches; M-cell antigen sampling, 10-30 crypts, five-artery supply, and Paradise tonsillectomy criteria.

Palatoplasty

Palatoplasty is surgical repair of a cleft palate, closing the palatal defect and reconstructing the levator muscle sling, usually at 6–14 months of age. Techniques include von Langenbeck, Veau-Wardill-Kilner, Furlow Z-plasty, and Sommerlad intravelar veloplasty.

Palazestrant

Palazestrant (OP-1250) is Olema Oncology's investigational oral complete estrogen receptor antagonist (CERAN) and selective ER degrader (SERD) for ER+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer, in phase 3 trials OPERA-01 and OPERA-02.

Palbociclib

Palbociclib (Ibrance, Pfizer) is an oral CDK4/6 inhibitor for HR-positive breast cancer, first FDA-approved with letrozole in 2015, later with fulvestrant and aromatase inhibitors, and in 2026 for HER2-positive maintenance therapy (PATINA).

Paleolithic diet

The Paleolithic diet, also called the paleo or Stone-Age diet, permits foods advocates say humans ate before agriculture, such as meat, fish, fruits, and vegetables, while excluding grains, legumes, dairy, and added sugar.

Palifermin

Palifermin (Kepivance) is recombinant truncated human keratinocyte growth factor-1 (FGF7) that prevents severe oral mucositis; FDA approved 2004 for hematologic malignancy patients after myeloablative therapy with stem cell transplant, EU authorization withdrawn 2016.