[Facial and head pain from the neurologist's point of view (author's transl)].

Recognizing that pain is not a sensory sensation, but a subjective feeling, the neuroanatomical and neurophysiological aspects are shortly discussed which are the prerequisites of pain as an original phenomenon in higher life. The subcortical feeling of pain is compared with the pain sensation which extends to large parts of the cortex. The experience of pain may be suppressed or increased by the cortex. Since pain as a subjective phenomenon cannot be objectivated directly, the pain analysis has to consider the history of the patient and particularly the anatomical and physiological basis. The clinical diagnosis of facial and head pain differentiates the various pain syndrome which as localized pain are usually caused by externally visible changes from those projected pain phenomena in genuine or symptomatic neuralgias as well as referred pain sensations (e.g. in intracranial or occipitocervical lesions).