Pain for Philosophers

What's bad about masochistic pain?

2009-11-12T10:45:00.000-05:00

Here's the video from the talk I gave back in April about whether masochistic pain is good:http://www.adamswenson.net/HSG/HSG1.htmlBut since it's just me reading the paper aloud, you'll probably want to skip ahead and just watch the discussion:Part 1 http://www.adamswenson.net/HSG/HSG2.htmlPart 2 http://www.adamswenson.net/HSG/HSG3.htmlThe paper and powerpoint slides are available on the

List of Hospice & Palliative Medicine Blogs (Current & Inactive)

2009-11-08T12:19:00.001-05:00

Some of you may find this useful:Pallimed: A Hospice & Palliative Medicine Blog: *Updated* List of Hospice & Palliative Medicine Blogs (Current & Inactive): "

Children Can Greatly Reduce Abdominal Pain By Using Their Imagination: UNC Study

2009-11-08T12:14:00.001-05:00

Children Can Greatly Reduce Abdominal Pain By Using Their Imagination: UNC Study: "Children with functional abdominal pain who used audio recordings of guided imagery at home in addition to standard medical treatment were almost three times as likely to improve their pain problem, compared to children who received standard treatment alone. And those benefits were maintained six months after

Acetaminophen May Be Linked To Asthma In Children And Adults

2009-11-08T12:05:00.001-05:00

More reason to stay away as much as possible....Acetaminophen May Be Linked To Asthma In Children And Adults: "New research shows that the widely used pain reliever acetaminophen may be associated with an increased risk of asthma and wheezing in both children and adults exposed to the drug. Researchers from the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, conducted a systematic review

Hurts so good Q&A: What torture tries to do

2009-11-04T19:35:00.001-05:00

Hurts so good Q&A: Pain and transformation

2009-11-04T19:34:00.001-05:00

Hurts so good Q&A: Intimacy of BDSM scenes

2009-11-04T19:33:00.001-05:00

Hurts so good Q&A: Masochism and chronic pain

2009-11-04T19:32:00.001-05:00

Hurts so good Q&A: Self inflicted pain and masochism

2009-11-04T19:28:00.001-05:00

Bandolier Evidence-Based guides

2009-10-22T16:07:00.001-04:00

Turns out my favorite Little Book of Pain (no joke: that's the title) has a bunch of evidence-based reviews of all sorts of pain-related topics. The main site is here:Here are some examplesMigrainePain in generalOther general pain control stuffPalliative and supportive carePain care before, during, and after operationsDysmenorrhoea (menstrual cramps)

Why papercuts hurt so damn much

2009-09-18T16:37:00.001-04:00

During my bimonthly rereading of Price's Psychological Mechanisms of Pain and Analgesia, I ran across this in the middle of a discussion of the relationship between tissue damage and pain intensity:the rate of tissue damage is a direct function of protein in activation that, in turn, is a function of temperature. However, the amount of tissue damage is a function of both skin temperature and

A role for glial cell-targeting treatments for pain?

2009-09-18T16:13:00.001-04:00

The Psychology of Pain blog links to an interesting new study from CU-Boulder. I don't want to steal too much of his post, so here's a tease:Under normal circumstances glial cells are thought to be like housekeepers, said Watkins. They essentially clean up debris and provide support for neurons.But, like Gremlins, they have a nasty side too [the researchers] believe they have figured out how

More sting connoisseurship

2009-08-19T12:07:00.001-04:00

Here's a nice little interview vignette with Justin Schmidt whose 'Justin O. Schmidt's 'Sting Pain Index' I've mentioned before. On reflection, it is quite funny how much power a drop of venom gives a little tiny bug over us: Oh, Sting, Where Is Thy Death? - Happy Days Blog - NYTimes.com: The pain index came into being, he said, because he wanted to understand the two ways stinging can be of

Redheads need more drugs

2009-08-19T10:54:00.001-04:00

Huh.The Pain of Being a Redhead - Well Blog - NYTimes.com: A growing body of research shows that people with red hair need larger doses of anesthesia and often are resistant to local pain blockers like Novocaine. As a result, redheads tend to be particularly nervous about dental procedures and are twice as likely to avoid going to the dentist as people with other hair colors, according to new

Methadone prescribers' network

2009-08-19T10:33:00.001-04:00

The astonishing recent rise in opioid overdoses (many involving methadone) has finally forced me to agree that our (at least in the US) opioid policies and practices need some revision. Thus this expansion of a program available to buprenorphine prescribers seems welcome.A New Service For Health Care Providers Who Prescribe Methadone To Treat Chronic Pain Or Opioid Addiction: "A new service for

Coral for neuropathic pain

2009-08-15T11:00:00.001-04:00

Not as cool as sea-snail venom, but still worth filing under 'cool things from the sea'New Hope Of Relief For Neuropathic Pain: "New Hope Of Relief For Neuropathic PainA compound initially isolated from a soft coral (Capnella imbricata) collected at Green Island off Taiwan, could lead scientists to develop a new set of treatments for neuropathic pain - chronic pain that sometimes follows damage

Mindfulness in cancer treatment

2009-07-14T11:16:00.001-04:00

Go read Mindy Greenstein's WaPo piece: Aided by a Proponent of Mindfulness, Cancer Patient Focuses on Joys of Today - washingtonpost.comWhy are you still here? It's awesome. Trust me.Okay fine. Don't believe me. Here's a small bit of its awesomeness to entice you:Sanderson realized that this was what she was doing with her needle and, ultimately, with her illness: letting her experience of the

Confusing 'ameliorating' with 'obliterating'

2009-07-14T10:30:00.001-04:00

I've seen several authors make this point, but in an email to me, reader SV put it in a very nice way:"We physicians are called upon to "ameliorate" pain, which often is considered synonymous with "obliterating" pain."This is a very important flip-side to the incredible advances that have been made in pain medicine and public expectations about treatment. The way 'ameliorate' and 'obliterate'

Percocet and Vicodin be gone (hopefully)

2009-07-01T11:40:00.001-04:00

In light of my long-running antipathy toward the way acetominophen is currently used and regulated, this makes me very happy:Panel Recommends Ban on 2 Popular Painkillers - NYTimes.comBy GARDINER HARRISPublished: June 30, 2009ADELPHI, Md. — A federal advisory panel voted narrowly on Tuesday to recommend a ban on Percocet and Vicodin, two of the most popular prescription painkillers in the world,

Whose problem is the diversion of opioids?

2009-06-25T21:04:00.002-04:00

Okay. In the last post I mentioned that I get annoyed when concerns about opioids being diverted pop up in discussions about when opioids are indicated treatments. It's not that I don't think diversion is an important concern in drug policy. It's just that I feel like it shouldn't be part of discussions of when opioids are good treatments. Anyway, I was annoyed by not knowing I feel this way.* So

Opioids often preferable to NSAID's in the elderly

2009-06-25T20:45:00.003-04:00

This is important.The NYT reports that in light of findings that[in elderly patients] The risks of Nsaids include ulcers and gastrointestinal bleeding and, with some drugs, an increased risk of heart attacks or strokes. The drugs do not interact well with medicines for heart failure and other conditions, and may increase high blood pressure and affect kidney function, experts said.The American

Resources for Causalgia (CRPS/RSD)

2009-06-16T13:41:00.001-04:00

Here's a helpful guide to resources on Complex Regional Pain Syndrome/Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (CRPS/RSD/Causalgia)Resources and Relief for Reflex Sympathetic DystrophyFor those of you who don't know, Causalgia (CRPS/RSD) should rank high on the list of 'Things-You-Don't-Want'. On the IASP definition:CausalgiaA syndrome of sustained burning pain, allodynia, and hyperpathia after a traumatic

Online introduction to pain processes

2009-06-16T13:24:00.001-04:00

The-New-Science-of-Pain-Relief has a nice introductory walkthrough of the basic neurology of pain here.Philosophers will, of course, carefully take note the role of C nociceptive afferents.

Art

2009-06-16T13:05:00.001-04:00

Check out this collection of pain sufferers' art:Main pageGalleries by theme

ABC story on FDA Acetaminophen overdose report

2009-06-11T22:16:00.001-04:00

With every changing of the seasons comes a new set of cautions about acetaminophen use. Like the changing of the leaves, experts call for better public education and packaging practices.And, like the migration of the butterflies^, the pharmaceutical industry tells them to go f*** themselves:McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a Johnson & Johnson subsidiary and the manufacturer of Tylenol, said in a