explain
pain
section
1
page
24
Age, gender, culture and pain
T
he exact effects of age, culture and gender on pain are
difficult to study and are not fully understood, although
research in the area is developing quickly.
Age
Themedical view has often been that older and younger
people feel less pain thanmiddle-aged people. This is not
true.
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Theway of thinking about pain that is presented in
this book is of equal use for all ages, with adaptationwhere
necessary. Generally speaking, if a railway crossing boomgate
falls evenly on a 10 year old, a 45 year old and a 62 year old
theywill all say it hurts at about the same amount of force.
That said, the response to being struckwill vary according to
age. A babywill scream, a childwill cry, an adultmay react in
various ways, including suing the railways.
The prevalence of some pains, such as back pain, varies
throughout the lifetime.
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For example, the over 60s have
less back pain than the under 60s.
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This shows again that
pain is not necessarily related to the amount of
degeneration in tissue, although some conditions which
may be painful such as osteoarthritis becomemore common
with increasing age.
Have you ever noticed that when infants hurt themselves,
they often look to their parents before screamingwith pain?
Parents can ‘inform’ infants about themeaning of the
sensory input they are receiving (health professionals also
inform patients, rightly or wrongly about themeaning of
sensory inputs). The early impact of meaning has been
investigated in associationwith injections: the second
injection a child receives usually causesmore pain behaviour
(eg. screaming, avoidance) than the first.
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Also, during
immunisation the pain behaviours of a young circumcised
boy aremore obvious than those of a non-circumcised boy.
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