On the pain scale, what is the worst sensation? A study looked into the subject. And you will be surprised.
Unpleasant, complex, often unbearable, the feeling of pain varies between each individual. Yet there is a threshold of pain that no one can bear and that will trouble anyone who experiences it. While the pain of childbirth is often described as “the worst in the world” and it certainly tops the list of the worst to live with, another pain would take first place, according to a serious study by McGill University, in Canada.
The title of worst pain goes to…
According to a survey conducted by the University and published in the journal Painthe researchers wanted to know the worst suffering that can be endured by an individual. To conduct this study, they provided a panel of patients, affected by several illnesses/injuries or other pathologies, with a questionnaire associated with a pain index whose cursor is placed from 0 to 50 (from lowest to highest).
As the survey reports, at the top of the list of the most difficult pains to bear are: childbirth with an index of 35 out of 50, followed by that of a finger amputation rated at 40. The one which arrives in head of the ranking of the worst pains in the world with a score of 47 out of 50 is the complex regional pain syndrome (SDRC), which causes unbearable pain.
What are the symptoms of this syndrome?
According to the MSD manualsthe book of medicine, it is a “chronic neuropathic pain following soft tissue lesions or bone lesions (type I) or nerve lesions (type II) and which persists in intensity and duration in proportions disproportionate to the initial tissue lesion.” We also learn that pain can change depending on its environment: “it may worsen under the effect of environmental changes or emotional stress. Allodynia and/or hyperalgesia are usually observed, indicating central sensitization. The pain often leads to functional impotence of the affected limb.”
According to the study, this pain would be described as “electric shocks”, “burning”. Problem: there is currently no no treatment to combat this syndrome. A pathology which in France would concern between “4% to 7% of the population, or around 50,000 people”according to GEMMSOR, French Society for Hand Rehabilitation.
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