SnakebyteXX
07-05-2005, 08:28 AM
Tuesday, 05 July , 2005, 18:07
Washington: A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Bath suggests that women feel pain more than men.
The team led by Dr Ed Keogh asked volunteers to place their non-dominant arm in a warm water bath (37 degrees centigrade) for two minutes before transferring the hand into an ice water bath maintained at a temperature of 1-2 degrees centigrade.
The cold pressor tank allows researchers to monitor the pain threshold (the point at which volunteers first notice the pain) and pain tolerance (the point at which volunteers can no longer stand the pain). An upper time limit of two minutes is used in these kinds of studies.
They found that not only do women report more pain throughout the course of their lifetime, they also experience it in more bodily areas, more often and for longer duration when compared to men.
"Until fairly recently it was controversial to suggest that there were any differences between males and females in the perception and experience of pain, but that is no longer the case," Keogh said.
"Research is telling us that women experience a greater number of pain episodes across their lifespan than men, in more bodily areas and with greater frequency. Our research has shown that whilst the sensory-focused strategies used by men helped increase their pain threshold and tolerance of pain, it was unlikely to have any benefit for women," he added.
"Women who concentrate on the emotional aspects of their pain may actually experience more pain as a result, possibly because the emotions associated with pain are negative."
ANI
web page (http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13888966)
Washington: A new study conducted by researchers at the University of Bath suggests that women feel pain more than men.
The team led by Dr Ed Keogh asked volunteers to place their non-dominant arm in a warm water bath (37 degrees centigrade) for two minutes before transferring the hand into an ice water bath maintained at a temperature of 1-2 degrees centigrade.
The cold pressor tank allows researchers to monitor the pain threshold (the point at which volunteers first notice the pain) and pain tolerance (the point at which volunteers can no longer stand the pain). An upper time limit of two minutes is used in these kinds of studies.
They found that not only do women report more pain throughout the course of their lifetime, they also experience it in more bodily areas, more often and for longer duration when compared to men.
"Until fairly recently it was controversial to suggest that there were any differences between males and females in the perception and experience of pain, but that is no longer the case," Keogh said.
"Research is telling us that women experience a greater number of pain episodes across their lifespan than men, in more bodily areas and with greater frequency. Our research has shown that whilst the sensory-focused strategies used by men helped increase their pain threshold and tolerance of pain, it was unlikely to have any benefit for women," he added.
"Women who concentrate on the emotional aspects of their pain may actually experience more pain as a result, possibly because the emotions associated with pain are negative."
ANI
web page (http://sify.com/news/fullstory.php?id=13888966)