I'd really question the American/English usages. In a Mariah Carey song, she sings, "I can't wait to hate you, make you pain like I do" and every time I hear it I want to skin myself alive, it's such horrible use of English. We say, "hurt". Like Randy said, you can say that something pains you, "It pains me to say this but.........." but in England we would never ever say, "My child's head pains him" unless we were illiterate. So........it can be used as a verb with an article, "your sentence pained me", "it pains me to say this but.........." but most times we would use the word, "hurt" "my child's head is hurting him", "I'm hurting badly", "your words hurt me" "I want you to hurt like I do".

"That patient is in pain". "My kid has a pain in his head". "Pain is an undesired experience". Yes, pain can be a verb. "My kid's head pains him". "The experience pained me".