Take this empathy and call me in the morning: Could your good vibes ease the pain?

Is your patient in pain? A little empathy from you could work as well as an analgesic. That’s one of the key takeaways from a study—led by a neuroscientist from Norway’s Oslo University—that used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of 20 patients with chronic pain to see how interactions with a physician might affect their sensitivity to pain. The study, published recently in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, conducted MRI scans in two sessions that involved exposing the patients’ legs to stimuli that ranged from painless to moderately painful and then asking them to rate the perceived pain intensity using a scale. Half the patients were alone during these sessions while the other half were in the presence of a physician. Among this latter group, half had spoken to the accompanying doctor before the session and had discussed the history of their condition. The other half did not have any interaction with the accompanying physician ahead of their session. The researchers also conducted brain scans on the accompanying doctors. Read: Dear Doctor, are you intuitive? The study found that patients who did not have a physician present during their session reported greater pain than those accompanied by a doctor, even though both groups were subjected to stimuli of equal intensity. Meanwhile, the patients who were accompanied by a physician consistently reported pain that was milder than those who were on their own during the scan. Among those who had spoken to the accompanying physician before the session, there was a general feeling that the doctor was empathetic and able to understand and better estimate the intensity of their pain. This latter subgroup also had MRI scans that showed greater activity in the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and in their primary and secondary somatosensory areas. At the same time, the accompanying physicians registered an increase in correspondence between activity in their dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and activity in their patients’ secondary somatosensory areas—a region of the brain that is activated by pain. This brain activity correlation increased as the reported mutual trust between physician and patient increased. "These results prove that empathy and support can decrease pain intensity," the study authors wrote. Read: Understanding pain and what healthcare professionals can do

Take this empathy and call me in the morning: Could your good vibes ease the pain?

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