Your pain is in fact produced in your head and it will produce it more readily and more intensely if you have what you think is clear evidence that something is wrong.
Mislav Marohnić/Flickr
People develop a long-term problem after an episode of back pain if they expect to not recover. Steps by the medical sector to avoid catatrophising back pain by not suggesting scans will help.
The idea that we can achieve happiness by maximising pleasure and minimising pain is both intuitive and popular. The truth is, however, very different.
It’s not in the bones, but it might not be in the brain either.
X-ray image by www.shutterstock.com
One in five of us has been experiencing chronic pain over the past three months, or longer. Chronic pain won’t kill us; it just makes our lives miserable. More miserable, research suggests, than for example…
Baby Joe (Joseph Christopher Wilson) at 1 day old did nothing but sleep, feed and cry.
Will we ever have a scientific measure of consciousness? This was the essay topic I set my student a few months ago – only days before I went on maternity leave for the recent birth of my baby Joe (more…
Whether it’s a few flakes on a pizza or the spiciest vindaloo known to humankind, most people can tolerate or even enjoy the tingling, burning sensation chilli can bring. So how does chilli deliver its…
Chronic pain, defined as disabling pain that persists despite attempts at treatment and often without obvious cause, has become a serious challenge for health professionals. It is not surprising that someone…
Commonly used over-the-counter painkillers such as paracetamol, aspirin and ibuprofen will usually be strong enough to alleviate common aches and pains. But if you’re suffering from acute pain from dental…
Almost all of us have either had it, or can look forward to getting it in our lifetime. In fact, somewhere between about a tenth to a third of us have back pain right now. So is back pain just something…
Army recruitment: fear is a friend not foe.
Matt Brock
Pain is one of the most powerful weapons of war. Western Front soldier and poet Siegfried Sassoon dubbed war a “sausage machine” because it tore through and crushed tissues and organs, and dismembered…
Taking the pain – or a bout of man-flu?
Painkillers by Shutterstock
It’s a commonly held belief that women are better able to tolerate pain than men. The reasoning behind this is often that women are built to withstand pain because of how frequently they experience pain…
Surprisingly for such a universal experience, pain is profoundly misrepresented by common myths about what it is and what it means. These are rooted in dualistic models: the body as a simple machine and…
Feel the pain – but is it real or are you faking it?
A computer system has been developed that can tell whether facial expressions of pain are real or fake – with possible implications for those of us who fake the occasional “sickie”. A study, published…
While a flinch, or a grimace may provide us with clues, ultimately we only know that someone’s in pain if they tell us.
the italian voice/Flickr
We now know that there’s much more to pain than simply what is happening in the painful body part, and attention has turned to the role of the brain. But not even this mysterious organ can tell us everything…
Adam Kucharski, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
For most people, a chocolate today is better than one tomorrow. Economists refer to this as “future discounting”, where we prefer to have nice things now rather than wait and unpleasant things later rather…
Choose your over-the-counter painkiller based on the side effects you want to avoid.
Image from shutterstock.com
If you’re anything like me, your medicine cupboard is chockers with various non-prescription pain remedies: liquids, pills, capsules, children’s painkillers, formulations that are “gentle on the stomach…
The cellular and molecular generators of pain are fundamentally different between males and females.
Image from shutterstock.com
It’s long been a household debate: who really is the stronger sex, men or women? It’s no secret that physically, men often outperform women. But women have long argued that the gruelling experiences of…
Assistant Professor, University of Connecticut School of Nursing; Assistant Director, UCONN Center for Advancement in Managing Pain, University of Connecticut