Thinking away your pain, mind over matter Options

Brain scans help think away pain
It may really be a matter of mind over matter - scientists suggest it is possible to control brain activity to reduce the pain you feel.
Stanford University researchers found seeing brain scans and using mental exercises helped reduce pain.

A UK pain expert said the work backed other studies which suggested changing how people thought about pain could reduce its effects.

The research is in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Hope

Thirty-six volunteers took part in the study.


I'd think of little people on my back digging out the pain, or I'd think of snowflakes
Laura Tibbitt, who took part in the study 

Heat was applied to their palms, with the temperature for each person set depending on what they found painful.

One group was placed inside a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner where they were able to watch their brain activity on a moment-by-moment basis.

They were then shown "live" action images of their rostral anterior cingulate cortex, an area of the brain responsible for processing pain.

Nexy, they were given various mental strategies to try to train the brain to respond to pain differently, such as being asked to think of it as a relatively pleasant experience.

Over time, the eight people who went through this training procedure showed an increased ability to modulate their response to pain.

Other groups were either shown no scans at all - and just given behavioural techniques to help them cope with pain, or shown scans of different areas of the brain, or those showing other people's pain responses.

People in these groups showed no changes in how they responded to pain.

'Brain exercise'

Dr Sean Mackey, who led the research, said the study findings offered great hope for people who suffer chronic pain.

"We could change people's lives.

"However, significantly more science and testing must be done before this can be considered a treatment for chronic pain."

He said it was not clear how people had controlled their brain activity, but added: "We really don't know how anyone controls their brain to perform an action."

Laura Tibbitt, 31, who took part in the study, has chronic back pain caused by a horseback riding accident seven years ago, said she used different thoughts to decrease the pain while watching her brain scans.

She said: "I'd think of little people on my back digging out the pain, or I'd think of snowflakes.

"The goal was to exercise your brain, to retrain your brain. Sometimes I felt like I had made a change in my brain. The pain was never completely gone, but it was better."

Dr Beverley Collett, president of the British Pain Society, said: "In some ways, this supports some of what we are already doing in pain treatment, using cognitive therapy to change how people think about their pain.

"And we know psychological treatments do help people manage their pain."



Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/health/4524138.stm

Published: 2005/12/13 13:50:02 GMT

© BBC MMV

I listen to people at work and when i'm out and about, and they know that life is not quite the way they want it to be. It is just that they lack the tools to deal with this, and so use the tools that they have to hand and have been told will work (TV, Drink, Drugs, Consumer goods, Fast Food etc). I think this is why people become attached to the latest fads, false spiritual teachers, fundamentalist religion... they are looking for the right tools to make sense of the world and their lives.

Take this drug, it will make the pain go away. This is just another way that people are taught that they cannot deal with this themselves, that one has to look for a pill to take away the pain. Soma comes in many forms.