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Can we adapt to painful things?

 •  • by Paul Ingraham
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Weekly nuggets of pain science news and insight, usually 100-300 words, with the occasional longer post. The blog is the “director’s commentary” on the core content of PainScience.com: a library of major articles and books about common painful problems and popular treatments. See the blog archives or updates for the whole site.

Of course we can — that’s actually quite a familiar human experience. As one commenter put it, “Just talk to anyone who works as a cook in a restaurant.” But it’s nice to have some science! And we have some, from one of those experiments that I really hope subjects were paid well for… 😜

A 2012 experiment by May et al. repeatedly exposed a few dozen subjects to painful heat: 48˚ C! 118˚ F! ♨️ That’s hot! Well over the hottest safe temperature for a hot tub, for instance, and even well beyond what anyone can tolerate. But this was just heating one small area, not the whole body. Over eight days of torture, that treatment led to “substantially decreased pain ratings to identical painful stimuli.” Also known as “habituation.” Cool!

An interesting detail: Everyone experienced sensitization during sessions, but habituation between sessiotns, with or without back pain or depression.

PainSci Member Login » Submit your email to unlock member content. If you can’t remember/access your registration email, please contact me. ~ Paul Ingraham, PainSci Publisher