The men and the women use different biological systems to reduce painwhich affects the way they experience the reliefaccording to a new study that could explain why women they suffer more chronic pain and respond less to treatments with opiates.
In new research that evaluated the meditation for him chronic low back painresearchers from University of California School of Medicine in San Diego, they discovered that men and the women They use different biological systems to relieve pain.
So, while the men relieve pain by releasing endogenous opiatesthe body’s natural painkillers, women they resort to other means non-opioids.
THE synthetic opiateslike the morphine and the fentanylare the most powerful painkillers available. We know that the women respond poorly to opioid therapies, which use synthetic opioid molecules to bind to the same receptors as endogenous opiates natural. This aspect of opiates helps explain why they are as powerful as painkillersbut also why they carry a significant risk of dependence And dependence.
“THE dependence “This develops because people start taking more opioids when the initial dose stops working,” the doctor explains. Fadel Zeidanprofessor of anesthesiology and lecturer in empathy and compassion research at the Sanford Institute of Empathy And Compassion of the University of California in San Diego.
“Although speculative, our results suggest that this may be one reason why women are more likely to become addicted opioids “This is because they are biologically less sensitive to it and they have to take more of it to feel pain relief,” he adds.
He study combined data from two clinical trials involving a total of 98 people, both healthy and diagnosed with chronic low back pain.
Participants completed a training program in meditation and then they practiced meditation by receiving a placebo or a high dose of naloxonea medicine that stops the action of synthetic opioids And endogenous.
At the same time, they felt a very painful but harmless thermal stimulus on the back of their leg. Researchers measured and compared the degree of pain relief meditation when the opioid system was blocked compared to when it was intact.
According to the results of the study, blocking the opioid system with naloxone inhibited pain relief based on meditation in the menwhich suggests that the men depend on the endogenous opioids to reduce the pain.
THE naloxone increased pain relief based on meditation in the womenwhich suggests that the women rely on non-opioid mechanisms to reduce pain.
Both in men as in womenpeople with chronic pain experienced a greater pain relief with the meditation than healthy participants.
“These results highlight the need for more specific pain therapies for everyone sexbecause many of the treatments we use don’t work as well in the women as in the men“he declares Zeidan.
The researchers conclude that if the pain treatment At sex of the person, it may be possible to improve patient outcomes and reduce dependence and misuse of opiates.
“There are obvious disparities in pain treatment between men And womenbut until now we have not observed a clear biological difference in the use of their systems endogenous –states Zeidan–. This study provides the first clear evidence that differences based on sex inside pain treatment are real and should be taken into greater account during the development and prescription pain treatments“.
