Is pain subjective to everyone? Maybe not so much. Canadian researchers from McGill University have published a study, in which they established a scale of pain felt by humans, which ranges from 1 to 50.
The objective was to determine what was the worst pain a human being could feel, the one closest to “50”, which is the grade of pain that a human cannot bear.
A sprain at 13, a delivery at 35
For example, a sprained ankle corresponds to an index of 13, as noted by journaldesfemmes.com, chronic back pain to an index of 25, fibromalgia to an index of 30.
Among the worst pains, we find pain felt during childbirth (index of 35), that of a finger amputation (40) or, with a score of 42 out of 50, that of the sting of the American ant from the South Paraponera clavata or “gunshot” ant (so nicknamed because the pain is said to be comparable to that felt during a gunshot).
The worst pain reaches index 47 out of 50
In first place in the ranking of Canadian researchers is Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS, or CRPS in English, as seen in the diagram above). This term designates a set of chronic neurological symptoms, which occur after trauma, most often to the foot or hand (fracture, operation, crush injury, amputation, etc.) and which follow lesions at the level nerves responsible for pain.
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There are several types of CRPS: type 1 refers to pain related to soft tissue or bone damage, while type 2 is related to nerve damage. It is the latter, which is the most acute form, which can reach a pain index of 47 out of 50 according to the scale of Canadian researchers.
A pain that is difficult to describe, but which researchers refer to as a “throbbing”, “burning” pain which can spread throughout the body, accompanied by electric shocks. According to the study, patients also complained of edema, uncontrollable tremors and psychological distress, among other things.
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