"This Won't Hurt a Bit." Oh Yes, It Will
We've all been there. The nurse coming toward us with the needle, or, as in my recent ase, the resident saying "This won't hurt" as he yanks the broken bone in your wrist to try to put it back in place. Why do these people say this, and why does it hurt so much more when they say it? A new study has found that when this happens -- your expectations violated, and not in a good way -- it's because our expectations of pain affect the experience of pain, according to Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurobiology and anatomy at Wake Forest Baptist and first author of the study, at newswise.com. “This effect shows us how important it is to manage people’s expectations when it comes to pain," he says. Duh. Previous studies have shown that the expectation of intense pain can make pain feel worse while the expectation of milder pain can actually make it hurt less. It all has something to do with areas of the brain but all I know is, I don't...