The presence of a romantic partner during painful medical procedures could make women feel worse rather than better, researchers say.<\/p>\n
A study involving 39 couples found this increase in pain was most pronounced in women who tended to avoid closeness in their relationships.<\/p>\n
The authors say bringing a loved one along for support may not be the best strategy for every patient.<\/p>\n
The work appears in the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.<\/p>\n
Painful pulses<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Researchers from University College London, King’s College London and the University of Hertfordshire say there has been very little scientific research into the effects of a partner’s presence on someone’s perception of pain, despite this being common medical advice.<\/p>\n They recruited 39 heterosexual couples and asked them a series of questions to measure how much they sought or avoided closeness and emotional intimacy in relationships.<\/p>\n Each female volunteer was then subjected to a series of painful laser pulses while her partner was in and then out of the room.<\/p>\n The women were asked to score their level of pain. They also had their brain activity measured using a medical test called an EEG.<\/p>\n The researchers found that certain women were more likely to score high levels of pain while their partner was in the room.<\/p>\n These were women who said they preferred to avoid closeness, trusted themselves more than their partners and felt uncomfortable in their relationships.<\/p>\n And researchers say the findings were mirrored in the brain activity tests too.<\/p>\n When their partners were present, the women’s EEG traces showed higher spikes of activity in regions of the brain linked with experiencing body threat.<\/p>\n Dr Katernia Fotopoulou, one of the lead researchers, told the BBC: “Our research shows one piece of advice doesn’t fit everyone.<\/p>\n “Advice that you must have your partner with you is not always going to work if people are most concerned about lowering the level of pain they feel.”<\/p>\n Tailored advice<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Dr Amanda Williams, from University College London, provided an independent comment: “This research fits well with previous studies – some children report they feel more pain in the presence of their parents.<\/p>\n “This is particularly true when their parents are more anxious than them.<\/p>\n “People assume that having a partner, a parent or a close other present is always helpful but it is clearly not the case.<\/p>\n “We need to understand who this advice doesn’t suit.”<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The presence of a romantic partner during painful medical procedures could make women feel worse rather than better, researchers say. A study involving 39 couples found this increase in pain was most pronounced in women who tended to avoid closeness in their relationships. The authors say bringing a loved one along for support may not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[15],"class_list":["post-84634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-chinese"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84634\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}