Quote:
Originally Posted by mrsD
The Mankoski Pain Scale is the most commonly used one:
Here is a link to it...
http://www.wemsi.org/painscale.html
I think pain is a very subjective thing. Some people can withstand alot of pain, and others cannot.
One can learn to dissociate some pain, through autohypnosis and relaxation techniques. Some research is being done with this type of therapy so that dependence on drugs can be less.
There is a neuronal pathway in the brain that processes pain. And evidence is mounting that it becomes a LEARNED process like other things we learn. So if one allows pain to become your master, it may never go away centrally. The example given is the phantom pain amputees feel, which continues in the brain after the limb is gone. So it is very important NOT to dwell on discomforts, to shift attention and focus elsewhere, so the pain loop does not become permanent. |
This is the first I've heard of the Mankoski scale, and I've been researching pain scales on & off for a few years now. It's an ongoing discussion with several of my doctors. Do you have any citations for "most commonly used"? (You know how they love citations!) For a long while, I was promoting the Hochman Pain Scale: (I guess I still do at times.)
http://www.algosresearch.org/Practic...nPainScale.pdf
(only link I could find on short notice)
My doctors hated it. They prefer no benchmarks (as Hochman, Mankoski, and others use) so that patients respond relative to their own histories. They're looking for consistencies/differences within a particular patient's history rather than trying to objectively quantify pain, which I agree is futile for the reasons you state.
I went through self-hypnosis, meditation, and biofeedback for pain. Didn't help because the concentration required was nearly as stressful as the pain, and with severe chronic pain, it's very difficult to keep up for more than short periods.
> There is a neuronal pathway in the brain that processes pain.
In this paragraph, are you talking about the gating theory? I sort of have a handle on it, but still struggling with parts of it.
> So it is very important NOT to dwell on discomforts, to shift attention and focus elsewhere....
I agree wholeheartedly. This is the crux of my presentation on coping with chronic pain. I wrote much of it up and posted to Usenet a few years back, and I'm still getting feedback from folks who are finding it for whom it's been helpful.
http://tinyurl.com/2c642oa
Doc