Fear of being hurt can be worse than pain itself

A visit to the dentist can be an unpleasant necessity – but there are far bigger fears to face than drills and extractions.Dreading pain can be worse than the pain itself, say scientists – and that’s why so many of us would rather get unavoidable discomforts out of the way quickly rather than put them off.Researchers think that we choose to confront pain because the stress of worrying about it prevents us from focusing on other activities.The findings may assist doctors and policy makers to improve schedules for painful treatments and interventions to minimise dread.Lead researcher Dr Giles Story, from Imperial College London, said: ‘When people are offered a reward, they prefer to have it as soon as possible, which could be interpreted to mean that we rate future experiences as less important when we’re making decisions. 'This reasoning would suggest that you would put off unpleasant things to the future as well.‘We found that this isn’t the case for most  people. If pain can’t be avoided, most people choose to get it out of the way sooner, even if that means the pain is worse.’In the study, 35 participants were asked to choose between electric shocks of increasing intensity. In 71 per cent of tests, people chose to have the pain earlier, even though that meant a more painful stimulus. Similar results were found when volunteers had to choose between imagined dental appointments involving different levels of pain. The report, published in the journal Public Library of Science Computational Biology, said: ‘One explanation, termed ‘dread’, is that anticipating pain is unpleasant or disadvantageous, rather like pain itself.‘Human brain imaging studies support the existence of dread, though it is unknown whether and how dread depends on the timing of future pain.’Dr Story added: ‘This might make sense if anticipating pain stops you from doing things well or enjoying yourself.’The findings suggest the same principles could also be applied to deadlines, which explains why individuals are more likely to meet targets when a time limit is imposed.‘The findings would also suggest that deadlines or other ways of making something inevitable is more likely to result in you choosing to get it out of the way, even if it is something you are dreading,’ added Dr Story.(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az