Comments on: When Surgery Is Over, Anesthetics Actually Increase Pain http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/06/24/when-surgery-is-over-anesthetics-actually-increase-pain/ 80beats is DISCOVER's news aggregator, weaving together the choicest tidbits from the best articles covering the day\'s most compelling topics. Wed, 07 Jan 2009 23:19:57 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.3.1 By: Alison http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/06/24/when-surgery-is-over-anesthetics-actually-increase-pain/#comment-58 Alison Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:36:02 +0000 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2008/06/24/when-surgery-is-over-anesthetics-actually-increase-pain/#comment-58 It is really interesting how much we are still learning about how western medicine affects the body. I am very grateful for anaesthesia (believe me, I had a c-section), but it doesn't seem so surprising to me that there could be such a fundamental misunderstanding in the field of pain management. Modern American hospitals tend to treat each symptom in isolation, and until we have a more holistic philosophy, more troubling side effects are bound to pop up. There are, however, extremely positive changes on the horizon. I recently read of "art therapy" being introduced into children's hospitals, and even being used to help adult patients as well. It is kind of hilarious how "ground-breaking" it is to remember that we are people first, and patients second. (Washington Post, 4/4/08) To read the article: http://www.tinyurl.com/4ggs4o It is really interesting how much we are still learning about how western medicine affects the body. I am very grateful for anaesthesia (believe me, I had a c-section), but it doesn’t seem so surprising to me that there could be such a fundamental misunderstanding in the field of pain management. Modern American hospitals tend to treat each symptom in isolation, and until we have a more holistic philosophy, more troubling side effects are bound to pop up.

There are, however, extremely positive changes on the horizon. I recently read of “art therapy” being introduced into children’s hospitals, and even being used to help adult patients as well. It is kind of hilarious how “ground-breaking” it is to remember that we are people first, and patients second. (Washington Post, 4/4/08)
To read the article: http://www.tinyurl.com/4ggs4o

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