Psychology Facts

▲ Pain ▲

》Pain is normal. About 75 million U.S. residents endure chronic or recurrent pain.

》Pain is defined "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage, or described in terms of such damage". Pain is a sensation of the body, and is always an unpleasant emotional experience.

》Pain is felt when electrical signals are sent from nerve endings to your brain, which in turn can release painkillers called endorphins and generate reactions that range from instant and physical to long-term and emotional.

》People often think of pain as a purely physical sensation. However, pain has biological, psychological and emotional factors. Furthermore, chronic pain can cause feelings such as anger, hopelessness, sadness and anxiety.

》The brains of people with chronic backaches /pain are as much as 11 percent smaller than those of non-sufferers, scientists reported in 2004.

》Until 1987, heart surgeries (and other surgeries) were performed on babies with no anesthesia, as it was commonly believed that babies could not feel pain.

》Women have more nerve receptors than men. As an example, women have 34 nerve fibers per square centimeter of facial skin, whereas men average just 17. And in a 2005 study, women were found to report more pain throughout their lifetimes and, compared with men, they feel pain in more areas of the body and for longer durations.

》In addition to typical aches and pains, Tylenol actually alleviates psychological pain (e.g. social rejection).

》Having chronic pain can damage your brain over time because of constant brain activity in areas of the brain that should normally be at rest.

》John F. Kennedy took meth to manage pain from war injuries and "to keep his youthful image

》Queen Victoria used cannabis to alleviate her menstrual cramp pain

》Experiments have revealed that doctor's assessments of pain are influenced by how attractive a patient is.

》It might sound a little woo-woo, but more and more evidence shows that meditation and cognitive behavioral therapy, which address underlying thoughts and beliefs, can help mitigate your pain.

》Hata points to research that says approximately 30 percent of patients who took a placebo for pain reported that it lowered their pain levels. This is about the same percentage of effectiveness that's required for a new pain medication to be approved. In conclusion, your brain plays a big part in pain.

》Everyone perceives pain differently, and a multitude of factors play a role. Those include structural and chemical changes in your brain, inflammation levels in your body, and beliefs about pain from previous experiences that color how you react emotionally.

》Lobsters feel no pain, even when boiled, scientists said in a 2005 report that is just one more salvo in a long-running debate.

》Swearing can increase pain tolerance and reduce the fear of being in pain.

》Studies show that women rate their pain higher during the premenstrual and menstrual phases of their cycle than during other times of the month. It seems that when estrogen levels are high, pain sensitivity is low, and when estrogen levels are low, pain sensitivity is high