Surprising Findings Pain can be better relieved by strangers

Pain and psyche: The pain-relieving effect of strangers

British scientists recently reported on a study that provided evidence that demonstrated empathy by doctors can help with pain relief. But even treating patients with strangers can have a positive effect on the treatment of pain, as an international research team has now discovered.

It does not always have to be medication

Most people first try to treat themselves when they are in pain. Some then quickly resort to medication, others rely more on alternative pain therapies. These often help just as well or even better than drugs, as shown in research. For example, aromatherapy can relieve pain. But often self-treatment is not enough and you need help from others. Then obviously, people who are "foreign", especially good help.

If pain relieving measures come from an untrusted person, they look better, according to a recent study. (Image: bmf-foto.de/fotolia.com)

Close connection between pain and psyche

It is well known that pain and psyche are closely related and that social factors play a key role in how people experience pain.

How one of the most important social factors - group affiliation - has changed the perception of pain has now been investigated by a team of researchers from the Universities of Würzburg, Zurich and Amsterdam.

The Surprising Result: When the subjects got help from a person who was foreign to them, they felt the pain was much lower than those who received pain relief from people in the same social group.

The study was recently published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences.

Examination of pain

"In our study, we measured subjective pain judgments on the one hand, and brain activation in certain areas in participants before and after pain treatment," explained study leader Prof. Dr. med. Grit Hein from the University of Würzburg in a communication.

The study participants received electric shocks on the back of the hand, which they considered painful, and had to evaluate their intensity.

Meanwhile, the subjects were in a functional magnetic resonance tomograph, with their brain activity was measured.

In order to examine the effect of belonging to a group on pain perception, the study participants - 40 Swiss men - were divided into two groups:

One group received pain relief from individuals of the same nationality as the subjects and thus their group.

The other group was treated by people of a different nationality who they considered "foreign": people from one of the Balkan countries.

Lower activation in the brain

The result: "Before the treatment the participants of both groups showed a similarly strong negative reaction to pain", explained Prof. Dr. med. Hein.

However, after being treated by the "stranger" in their view, participants in this group reported less pain compared to the other group. This effect was not limited only to the subjective feeling:

"We also saw a reduction in pain-related activation in the corresponding areas of the brain," says the scientist.

The findings, which may be surprising for the layman, are in conformity with a central statement from the theory of learning. It says that people learn especially well when the results are quite different than they expected.

Psychologists in this case speak of "prediction error learning". The surprise then helps to ensure that the new experience, the new knowledge, is better anchored in the brain..

Surprise provides relief

Related to the pain experiment, this means: "The study participants who received pain relief from a stranger had not expected that they would actually get help from him effectively," said the neuroscientists.

And the less the participants had expected positive experiences, the greater was their surprise when the pain actually subsided - and the greater was the reduction in their pain responses.

Even though the number of study participants at 40 was not particularly large, the researchers are convinced of their results.

"The findings are backed up on many levels - from the ratings of the patients on the neuronal response in the brain to the effect sizes," said Grit Hein.

Nevertheless, it is a first study in this field, which now has to be tested outside the laboratory.

Finally, the findings may be relevant to the clinical setting, where treatment by nurses and doctors from other cultures is common today. (Ad)