Definition
The term “allodynia” was introduced to describe a puzzling clinical phenomenon; in some patients, gentle touch may induce a pronounced pain sensation (“touch-evoked pain”). In the current taxonomy of the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP), allodynia is defined as pain induced by stimuli that are not normally painful.
If taken literally, this definition means that any reduction in pain threshold would be called “allodynia.” According to the IASP taxonomy, increases in pain to suprathreshold stimuli are called “hyperalgesia.” Because the neural mechanisms of sensitizationtypically cause a leftward shift in the stimulus-response function that encompasses both reduced thresholds and increased suprathreshold responses, these definitions have been controversial ever since their introduction. Moreover, behavioral studies in animals often use withdrawal threshold measures...
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Treede, RD. (2013). Allodynia (Clinical, Experimental). In: Gebhart, G.F., Schmidt, R.F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Pain. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28753-4_153
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