Anyway, we got onto the subject of Migraines which led to many other different conversations. One place he went is that he talked about a rat study that was done on pain.
He said that there was a study done where they took three rats from the same family so the genes would be very similar. The rats were put on a heated surface where they wouldn't be able to leave that surface. I really hope this study was done with more than three rats or I don't know how viable such a small study would be, but then, that was not the point of his story.
Anyway, Rat A hopped many times after the heat was set on - let's say 180 times in a given timeframe to try to evade the heat, Rat B 100 times and Rat C 10 times. Then they gave the three rats an opiod derivative and repeated the test.
Which rat did the opiod affect the most? Which rat cut down their percentage of hops the most? What do you think and why?
The rat that the opiod helped the most was Rat A. It seems that if you are more sensitive to pain, then you are more sensitive to pain medications where it will help relieve your pain better than it may help other types of rats or people. Like I said, this is what this character said, but where it made the most sense to me is that I feel that Rat C explains me.
I am not the type to keep hopping around to avoid the heat or pain and I don't take much pain medication. I went most of my Migraine 'career' not taking any NSAIDs or even knowing that triptans existed. I recently received a synthetic opiod, but didn't find it to be very effective. I am sure I am not taking this pain med as often as I should either.
Which rat are you?
4 comments:
The conclusion that Rat A benefited most from the opoid does not make much sense to me. As with someone who is usually in higher amounts of pain requires more pain medication and it is not as effective. At least that is the case with me. If I allow my pain to get to extreme levels...nothing brings it down, it takes more and is never as effective. I am trying very hard to quit taking alot of medications at this point. They aren't working and I find myself taking insane amounts. I actually feel like a lab experiment!
I think that makes a lot of sense, that Rat A would hop a lot to try to keep the pain level as low as possible and therefore, need as little medication as possible. Last year, I wrote about feeling like a science experiment. With everything we do and try for ourselves, we are like one big experiment!
That sounds very interesting. I, too, feel like Rat C. I've never been very sensitive to pain, and pain meds have never really helped me. I am sensitive to medications, but it's mainly just the side effects...and happens to be with all meds except pain meds. I wonder if there are other studies that have been done about the effectiveness of pain meds on people with varying levels of sensitivity to pain... lol... the psychology major in me is very intrigued. :-)
I would like to see other studies around this too. I think they would be interesting too. I'm sure the way I explained the study here is probably very rudimentary.
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