Animal Models in Pain Research

Pain is an unpleasant perception of noxious and non-noxious stimuli. It is sensed at the pain receptors in tissues and processed in the spinal cord and brain. Pain is an emotionally hurting experience that affects the quality of life; hence, it can only be studied in intact and conscious animals. Animals cannot express themselves clearly the way humans do. Hence, pain experienced by animals is more difficult to assess. It is usually assessed as response to evoked stimulus. Pain in animals could be induced by various ways depending on its type viz. inflammatory, neuropathic, visceral, cancer, bone, surgical, etc. In this chapter, the most commonly used models of pain of each of the phenotypes related to clinical pain as well as the main behavioural tests for assessing pain in each model will be discussed. Animal models of pain are very important for understanding pain processes and discovering therapeutic molecules.