"The soul can control pain"

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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How agonizing a pain is perceived to be depends largely on the psychological attitude. Dr. Gerhard Müller-Schwefe in a interview.

Dr. Gerhard Müller-Schwefe

Dr. Gerhard Müller-Schwefe is President of the German Society for Pain Medicine e. V. and works as a senior doctor in the pain and palliative center in Göppingen.

Dr. Müller-Schwefe, our mind influences how strongly we perceive pain. What hurts us a lot one day, we can easily put away on another. Why is that?

The pain control system in the brain is heavily influenced by our emotions. When we are fine, we are socially well integrated and when we get enough recognition, we register pain less strongly. But when we are marginalized or bullied, or when we are depressed, pain control is turned off. And so the pain signal is passed on unchecked and perceived more strongly.

Conversely, pain also affects the psyche - those who suffer pain are more likely to become depressed.

People in pain withdraw, lose their social contacts, become lonely. And they lose hope because they keep having the experience that life slows them down. All of this leads to depression. These people then do not primarily need psychotherapy, but pain therapy. Conversely, there is also depression, which is expressed in the form of pain - you have to look carefully at what the hen is and what the egg is.

If the sensation of pain and the psyche are so closely related - can pain also be controlled mentally?

Psychological pain therapy is even standard. The patient learns to control pain through the soul. We call such techniques fakir techniques. As with a fakir on a pincushion, the pain stimulus is there, but it is not felt.

How can you imagine that?

One possibility is mindfulness training. You feel what is happening in the body and then direct and control the perception of pain. In this way, the meaning of pain in life can also be changed. It still exists, but it is no longer the focus. Another possibility are imagination techniques. The patients learn to use their imagination to change their body functions.

And who doesn't have the necessary imagination?

Biofeedback can help with this. Physical processes are measured and made visible and audible by computer. Through this feedback, the patient learns how to change and adjust the processes in the body. For tension headaches, for example, biofeedback is a very good method. Electrodes measure the muscle tension, which is translated into an electrical signal. For example, a whistle. Some patients only realize how tense they are in such a situation. When the patient relaxes, the sound becomes quieter. In this way he learns to consciously reduce his muscle tension.

And in patients with migraines?

Migraine sufferers also benefit significantly from biofeedback. Through the feedback, they learn to constrict their blood vessels in the head and thus interrupt a migraine attack. You have to try it out a bit, but then you know how it works.

And with that you also get rid of severe headaches?

It works much better if you intervene much earlier, as soon as you notice that something is brewing. The point is to reduce muscle tension in good time so that the body does not have to send out violent warning signals, so that headaches do not arise in the first place. One can learn to recognize such early warning signs. This is even more important with migraines. If you take countermeasures in good time, you can interrupt a migraine attack without medication.

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