This article in the Dana Foundation's website explores issues around medicating the sorts of pain which occur naturally as part of life.
I am curious about the instinctive distrust of medicating away normal pain. I gave birth reasonably recently, and am very glad the medical professionals who organised my care were reasonably keen on pain relief. From a purely practical point of view, I think new mums need all their resources to deal with their new baby and using up mental resources on surviving the pain of childbirth seems to be asking for trouble. Noone would have denied me pain relief for the c-section. I was talking to someone who was too far into the birth of her second child to have an epidural. She said while the pain was horrible, she did have some benefit in terms of being able to feel what was going on better. Curiously, the human body enthusiastically produces vast amounts of endorphins during birth (if you are lucky), so it isn't like the body is keen on pain for its own sake.
The article also mentions that the experience of pain may help us to feel empathy for others. On the other had it can cause us to minimise the suffering of others, so I'd like to see more evidence on this point.
Then again, I tramp (or at least I have hazy memories from the past), and part of tramping is the physical struggle of it. At the end of each day, it feels very good to sit down and eat something. Taking heavy painkillers so I could walk without discomfort would take out an important element of the experience (and would be dangerous as you wouldn't have good feedback about whether you were overdoing it).
All of which makes me think that we support the experience of pain where:
* it is inextricably linked to a good feeling, generally related to endorphin production, or
* where the pain provides good information about the boundaries of good behaviour (i.e. punishment or owch).
In other circumstances, we generally apply as many painkillers as possible. We make some painkillers available at supermarkets so we don't have to put up with annoying headaches. We buy our friends a drink at the pub when they've had a bad day, we put painkilling gel on babies' gums when they are teething.
Which brings me to the other reason I'd suggest for no proscribing painkillers: where the pain can be better dealt with by changes in the behaviour of the person. In these cases, it makes more sense to make lifestyle changes or to learn how to manage the pain without pills so you have a sustainable solution. So, I'd rather not medicate over an old relationship breakup if it stops the person from dealing with the pain of it and they end up taking drugs for the rest of their life. Also, imho, if you can use relaxation techniques to deal with neck pain, you're winning in my book.
Posted by carla at August 21, 2007 10:00 PM