The Nurse Is Teaching the Student Nurse the Physiology Involved

The nurse is teaching the student nurse the physiology involved in pain transmission. Which of the following statements accurately describes a physiologic event in the nervous system related to pain transmission? Select all answers that apply.

A) Thermal stimulation may involve the release of mediators, such as histamine, prostaglandins, leukotrienes, or bradykinin.
B) When nociceptors are activated by noxious stimuli, the stimuli are converted to electrical impulses that are relayed to the spinal cord and brain.
C) Myelinated A-delta fibers are large fibers that conduct the impulse at very rapid rates; unmyelinated small C fibers transmit the impulse slowly.
D) Once in the dorsal horn of the spinal cord, the nerve fibers divide and then cross to the opposite side and rise upward to the thalamus.
E) The point at which the person first feels the highest intensity of the painful stimulus is termed the pain threshold.
F) Peripheral sensitization allows the nerve fibers to react to a stimulus that is of lower intensity than would be needed to cause pain.