A person perceives a strong pain less painfully if it comes immediately
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Franklin Roosevelt has already suggested that a person should fear only his own fear, recent studies have confirmed these words: the expectation of pain for a person is much worse than pain. In other words, a person even takes a very strong pain less painfully, if less time is spent on her waiting.
The classical theory of decision-making states that a person deferred in time events gives less significance, i.e. The so-called temporary discount begins to operate. But if we are talking about pain, such theories completely lose their meaning. Such a phenomenon can be explained by the fact that waiting is already unpleasant in itself, and scientists compare the expectation of pain sensations to horror.
Such conclusions were made by British scientists, from the London Imperial University. A group of scientists, led by Giles Story, tested over 35 volunteers who, for money, agreed to be subjected to a test with small electrical discharges. Volunteers could independently choose the time through which electrical discharges and electrical discharges would follow. The ultimate impact strength did not exceed 14 W, each procedure included a minimum of two electrical discharges. Young people had to choose independently - get 9 digits immediately or six-digit, but after a while. Most participants (71%) of the experiment chose more attacks, but immediately than tormentedly languish, waiting for an unpleasant execution. Specialists, by changing the impulses, determined that fear of impending pain sensations is multiplied exponentially in case of untimely onset of pain.
The volunteers also showed the same kind of results in the test, during which they had to wait for the prospective dentist. As the professor at Carnegie Mellon College, George Levenstein, said, studies show that the fear with which a person expects the onset of pain is so strong that it can completely change a person's idea of a temporary discount. Also, the scientist suggested that in our lives most of the pain comes not from real experience, but from the expectations and memories of these very sensations.
As scientists themselves believe, such a study is of great importance for medicine, because understanding how a person treats pain is important for later treatment. The head of the research group Giles Story is sure that one should not focus on the person's expectation of pain, it is necessary to minimize the fear of pain. Experts hope that their psychological experiment will help develop diagnostic tools, since, given the person's preferences, it will be possible to determine whether he is able to make a healthy choice.
Research pains scientists are not the first time, a little earlier experts made assumptions that the violation of the structural links of the brain is the cause of chronic pain in humans, and the occurrence of such pain may not have to do with the main trauma.
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