THE men and women they use different biological systems to reduce pain so they feel relief differently according to a new study that could help explain why women suffer more from chronic pain and respond less to opioid treatments.
In new research evaluating meditation for chronic low back pain, researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that Men and women use different biological systems to relieve pain.
So, while men relieve pain by releasing endogenous opiatesthe body’s natural pain relievers, women are turning to other non-opioid routes.
THE Synthetic opioids, like morphine and fentanyl, are the most powerful painkillers available. We know that the Women react poorly to opioid therapies, which use synthetic opioid molecules to bind to the same receptors as natural endogenous opioids. This aspect of opioids helps explain why they are so powerful as painkillers, but also why they carry a significant risk of dependence and addiction.
Women are more likely to become addicted to opioids because they are less sensitive to them
“Addiction is growing because people are starting to take more opioids when the initial dose stops working,” says Dr. Fadel Zeidan, professor of anesthesiology and lecturer in empathy and compassion research at the Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion at the University of California, San Diego.
“Although speculative, our results suggest that this may be one reason why Women are more likely to become addicted to opioids is that they are biologically less sensitive to them and they have to take more to feel pain relief,” he adds.
The study combined data from two clinical trials in which In total, 98 people participatedboth healthy and suffering from chronic low back pain.
Participants completed a training program in meditation then they practiced meditation while receiving a placebo or a high dose of naloxone, a drug that stops the action of synthetic and endogenous opioids.
At the same time, they felt a very painful but harmless thermal stimulus on the back of their leg. The researchers measured and compared the pain relief you experienced meditation when the opioid system was blocked compared to when it was intact.
According to the study results, blocking the opioid system with naloxone inhibited meditation-based pain relief in men, which suggests that men rely on endogenous opioids to reduce pain.
THE naloxone increased the Pain Relief Through Meditation in Womensuggesting that women rely on non-opioid mechanisms to reduce pain.
In both men and women, people affected chronic pain experienced greater pain relief with meditation than healthy participants.
“These results highlight the need for more gender-specific pain therapies, because many of the treatments we use don’t work as well in women as they do in men,” Zeidan says.
The researchers conclude that if the treatment of pain according to the sex of the person, it may be possible to improve patient outcomes and reduce opioid dependence and misuse.
“There are clear disparities in pain treatment between men and women“But until now, we have not observed a clear biological difference in the use of their endogenous systems,” says Zeidan. “This study provides the first clear evidence that sex-based differences in pain treatment are real and should be further considered when developing and prescribing pain treatments.”
