Placebo effect video

Here's a nice summary of some of the current understanding of the placebo effect. I'm also a fan of the fact that the efficacy of a placebo pill increases with the geometric complexity of its shape.

Also, the point at the end about using the research on placebos is bolstered by research on the nocebo effect -where contextual cues make the condition worse (though the nocebo effect lacks much of the placebo effect's nuance).

My mom must be proud

According to Alexa.com this site is the #1 place on the internet to find answers to the age old question:

Do opiates decrease telepathic abilities?

I hope the 5 people arriving from 3 different countries found the answers they were looking for.

Fetal pain

I think this sort of debate runs together two separate questions:

(1) Is the neurophysiology upon which pain-involving mental states supervene present in fetuses of x weeks?

and

(2) Is fetal pain --if it exists-- bad for the fetus?

Here's two reasons for thinking they come apart.

First, it's worth remembering that the aversiveness of pain is to some extent learned (see, for example, the famous McGill dog study). It might be that there is a pain sensation, but that the fetus has not learned to experience it as something bad. There might be evidence for or against this. But it probably wouldn't come from the fetus exhibiting near-reflex escape behaviors. IIRC, in adults many such behaviors are triggered very early in pain processing, even before much of the emotional processing occurs.

Second, there's the very hard question of whether fetuses are yet the sort of creatures that can have things be bad for them. Though I'm obsessed with the general problem (what makes something the subject of agent-relative value) I won't even try to articulate this one here. Especially because it actually a complex of several different super-hard issues.

Omaha.com - The Omaha World-Herald: Metro/Region - When can fetus feel pain?: "Knowing when a fetus first feels pain is like many scientific endeavors: It involves speculation and disagreement.

A bill before the Nebraska Legislature, the Abortion Pain Prevention Act, would ban abortions 20 weeks after conception, because it's at that point, Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood says, that a fetus begins to sense pain.

‘The science is compelling,’ the Norfolk lawmaker wrote on his Web site about the bill that is scheduled for a hearing Feb. 25.

In fact, there still is considerable disagreement among scientists, physicians and other experts. It's fairly common for a person's position on the question to mirror his position on abortion. But it's not clear when the complex communication circuitry in the body, spine and brain are developed enough for pain to be felt.

Nerve fibers designed to sense pain are present in a fetus's skin seven or eight weeks after conception, said Dr. Terence Zach, chairman of pediatrics at the Creighton University School of Medicine.

Surely by 20 weeks, Zach said, a fetus is mature enough to respond to what scientists call ‘noxious stimuli,’ or pain.

‘I believe that — yep,’ said Zach, who described himself as pro-life.

Another Omaha physician, Dr. Robert Bonebrake, agrees with Zach. Bonebrake, a perinatologist at Methodist Hospital, sometimes must give blood transfusions to fetuses or drain fluid from them at 21 or 22 weeks.

Those procedures involve inserting a needle or shunt into the fetus. Bonebrake said the fetus will ‘back away a little bit’ from the needle, indicating to him that it has felt the jab.

‘He or she will try to move away if possible,’ said Bonebrake, who also described himself as pro-life.

But in a review of fetal pain literature, University of California-San Francisco physicians reported in 2005 that ‘fetal perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester,’ or about 27 weeks into the pregnancy.

The review, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, said reflex movement isn't proof of pain, because it can occur without the brain being developed enough for conscious pain recognition.

The article also stated that only 1.4 percent of abortions in the U.S. occur at or after 21 weeks.

In Nebraska, fetal age doesn't have to be reported and usually isn't, according to a state health spokeswoman. But in cases where it was reported, none of the abortions that occurred in Nebraska in 2008 involved fetuses of 20 weeks or older.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists' position is that it ‘knows of no legitimate scientific information that supports the statement that a fetus experiences pain at 20 weeks' gestation.’

A Children's Hospital Boston anesthesiologist and researcher, Dr. Roland Brusseau, has studied the subject to determine whether a fetus undergoing a surgical procedure should have anesthesia. His institution is the main children's hospital of Harvard Medical School.

Brusseau calls discussions of fetal pain ‘complicated and controversial.’

He has suggested a broad timeline for when fetal pain might start: ‘If we are to accept that consciousness is possible by 20 weeks (or more conservatively, 30 weeks), then it also would appear possible that fetuses could experience something approximating ‘pain,'’ he wrote a little more than three years ago.

The possibility, he said, would appear to mandate the use of appropriate anesthesia when performing fetal surgery.

Federal legislation has been unsuccessfully introduced over the past several years to require abortion providers to inform the mother that the fetus could feel pain at 20 weeks and offer anesthesia directly to the fetus.

Six states — Oklahoma, Arkansas, Utah, Georgia, Louisiana and Minnesota — have passed similar legislation, according to the Center for Reproductive Rights in New York.

In Iowa, a bill to that effect in the Legislature failed in 2005.

What makes Flood's legislation different is that its answer to the question of fetal pain is to ban abortions after 20 weeks. Exceptions would be allowed if an abortion is deemed necessary to avoid substantial harm or death to the mother.

Flood said that laws protect animals in slaughterhouses from excessive pain, and that fetuses deserve that level of sensitivity.

He said he based his beliefs that fetuses feel pain at 20 weeks in part on assertions by Drs. Jean Wright and K.J.S. ‘Sunny’ Anand. Wright is former chairwoman of pediatrics at Mercer University School of Medicine's Savannah, Ga., campus and Anand is chief of pediatric critical care at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.

Flood said experts have found, for instance, that stress hormones spike when fetuses undergo invasive procedures.

Wright couldn't be reached for comment, but Anand, who was reached while doing humanitarian work in Haiti, said fetuses show signs of sensory perception around 20 weeks.

‘Whether this happens at 20 weeks or 22 weeks or 18 weeks is still open to question,’ Anand said. Some fetuses might develop more quickly than others, he said.

Anand said he believes the sense of pain in a fetus isn't turned on like a light switch. ‘It's more like a dimmer switch that very slowly — very, very gradually — turns on particular sensory modalities.’

Anand said the chain of connections for pain perception includes nerve fibers, spinal cord circuitry, brain stem and other portions of the brain. It's impossible to know for sure whether a fetus feels pain, he said.

But denying there is pain, he said, means there's no incentive to study it, no reason to work out ways to anesthetize fetuses, and no need for a doctor to consider whether pain is being inflicted.

‘But I think the onus is on us to give the benefit of the doubt,’ he said.

Anand said he believes abortion is appropriate in some instances, such as if a teenager has been raped, and inappropriate in others, such as when a woman has broken up with a boyfriend and then learns she's pregnant.

Arthur Caplan, professor of medical ethics and director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, said that ‘on the whole, I don't think science and medicine can be drawn in to support’ Flood's bill.

Caplan, who has a doctorate in philosophy, called himself ‘a conservative pro-choicer.’ He said that there is no consensus among physicians and scientists on the subject of fetal pain and that the notion that pain is felt at 20 weeks is ‘not the mainstream opinion.’

Bellevue abortion provider Dr. LeRoy Carhart, who has said he will perform late-term abortions only in cases when the fetus can't survive outside the womb, said he doesn't believe there is fetal pain before or during his abortions.

Nevertheless, Carhart said when performing abortions in cases where the fetus is 17 weeks or older, he sedates the mother — which sedates the fetus — and then administers another injection to stop the fetus's heart. The abortion typically occurs 24 to 72 hours later, he said.

‘This should be the ‘Put Carhart Out of Business Bill,'’ he said of Legislative Bill 1103.

Flood denied that his bill was directed at Carhart's revenue and said: ‘Dr. Carhart's loss of business pales in comparison to the loss of young lives.’

Dr. Michael Barsoom, director of maternal-fetal medicine at the Creighton School of Medicine, said he has seen fetuses move away from needles when needles are put in or near them.

Whether that's a reaction to pain, though, is unclear, Barsoom said. The fetus might respond reflexively and not as a conscious pain experience, he said.

‘I honestly don't know,’ said Barsoom, who described himself as pro-life. He said he doesn't think anyone can say for sure when a fetus begins to feel pain.

‘I don't think there's any way to find out.’"

Oklahoma restricting injections for chronic pain

Unfortunately, the article doesn't say why this was an issue in the first place

Oklahoma House gets bill restricting injections for chronic pain | NewsOK.com: "
Only physicians would be allowed to administer precise pain management injections under a bill approved Tuesday by a House committee.

The House Public Health Committee approved Senate Bill 1133 by a 14-5 vote. It now goes to the full House.
Rep. John Trebilcock, who took over authorship of the bill, said pain management injections into a patient’s spinal or neck area must be precisely administered.

'Chronic pain medication is medicine and should be practiced by doctors,’ said Trebilcock, R-Broken Arrow.

The measure was carried over from last year after it failed to win passage. Efforts to come up with a compromise among a hospital group, doctors and certified registered nurse anesthetists fizzled. Certified registered nurse anesthetists now administer spinal injections to manage pain.

Trebilcock said the practice of chronic pain management is 'extremely dangerous.’

An injection in the wrong spot could cause paralysis or not effectively treat the pain, he said.

Trebilcock said certified nurse anesthetists would be allowed to continue to give other injections. It’s estimated the chronic pain injections take up only about 4 percent of their duties, he said.

Marvin York, a lobbyist for the Oklahoma Association of Nurse Anesthetists, said the measure would be a hardship to rural patients, because few rural doctors practice in pain management.

'I can’t imagine why any rural legislator ... could possibly be for this bill,’ he said.

Victor Long of Norman, a certified registered nurse anesthetist, said about 80 percent of the spinal injections for pain are administered by certified registered nurse anesthetists. About 500 certified registered nurse anesthetists are in the state, he said.

Rep. Pat Ownbey, R-Ardmore, said he wondered why the bill was necessary because no complaints had been filed against certified registered nurse anesthetists administering chronic pain management injections.

'Is this a patient issue or a money issue?’ he asked fellow committee members. 'Make no mistake, this is a turf war.’

Trebilcock said doctors are willing to travel to rural areas to administer the injections.

'Rural Oklahoma shouldn’t have to settle for less than a doctor when they suffer from chronic pain,’ he said."

Healthcare-Associated Infection

This isn't directly about pain. But I thought I'd pass it along.

The Kimberly-Clark Health Care Company has an informational (and of course promotional) website on healthcare associated infections here Patients who want to get a sense of the problem and what they should keep an eye out for may find some of the links useful.

Anguish

Thanks OED:

[a. OFr. anguisse, angoisse (Pr. angoissa, It. angoscia) the painful sensation of choking:{em}L. angustia straitness, tightness, pl. straits, f. angust-us narrow, tight, f. root angu- in ang(u)-{ebreve}re to squeeze, strangle, cogn. w. Gr. {alenisacu}{gamma}{chi}-{epsilon}{iota}{nu}.]

Formerly with pl.

1. Excruciating or oppressive bodily pain or suffering, such as the sufferer writhes under.
c1220 Hali Meid. 35 Hwen hit {th}er to cume{edh} {th}at sar sorhfule angoise. a1300 Pop. Sc. (Wright) 374 The bodi..in strong angusse doth smurte. c1380 Sir Ferumb. 212 Hys wounde..for angwys gan to chyne. 1382 WYCLIF Jer. iv. 31 Anguysshes as of the child berere [1388 angwischis as of a womman childynge; 1611 the anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child]. c1386 CHAUCER Pars. T. 139 The peyne of helle..is lik deth, for the horrible anguisshe [v.r. angwissh(e, -uysch, -uyssche, -wysshe]. 1485 CAXTON Chas. Gt. 238, I haue suffred many anguysshes of hungre. 1592 SHAKES. Rom. & Jul. I. ii. 47 One paine is lesned by anothers anguish. 1656 RIDGLEY Pract. Physick 150 If there be pain of the Stomach, anguish, heat. 1758 S. HAYWARD Serm. xvii. 520 His [Job's] body was full of anguish. 1880 CYPLES Hum. Exp. iii. 70 The anguish of corns and toothache.

2. Severe mental suffering, excruciating or oppressive grief or distress.
c1230 Ancr. R. 234 In the muchel anguise aros {th}e muchele mede. 1297 R. GLOUC. 177 In gret anguysse and fere Wepynde byuore {th}e kyng. c1325 E.E. Allit. P. C. 325 When {th}acces of anguych wat{ygh} hid in my sawle. 1382 WYCLIF Prov. xxi. 23 Who kepeth his mouth and his tunge, kepeth his soule fro anguysschis. c1450 Merlin 64 Grete angwysshe that he suffred for the love of Ygerne. 1583 STANYHURST Aeneis II. (Arb.) 46 With choloricque fretting I dumpt, and ranckled in anguish. 1611 BIBLE Job vii. 11, I wil speake in the anguish of my spirit. 1678 JENKINS in Pepys VI. 125 An honest man..full of Anguishes for his King and his Country. 1769 Junius Lett. xxiii. 105 You may see with anguish how much..authority you have lost. 1810 SCOTT Lady of L. II. xxxiv, The deep anguish of despair.