An electronic gadget proven to reduce pain after surgery is fun to use, small enough to carry around in the palm of your hand and may already be in your pocket.
It’s your cellphone.
A study at Cornell shows that simply texting somebody on your cellphone during and after surgery performed under local anesthetic can significantly cut back your pain and ease your need for a narcotic pain killer.
And electronic flirtations may possess the strongest analgesic power. The researchers found that getting textually acquainted with a stranger relieved pain the best and was the most effect at cutting the perceived need for pain-dampening pharmaceuticals.
“These findings suggest that the simple act of communicating with a companion or stranger provides an analgesic-sparing effect,” the researchers conclude. “The data also suggest that text-based communication with a stranger is more effective.”
The researchers also found that playing a game like Angry Birds on your phone helps offset pain, too. But texting was more potent.
The tests on about 100 people who had surgery showed that people who got normal treatment after surgery – no access to a cellphone – were about twice as liable to need pharmaceutical pain relief as those who used their phones to play Angry Birds before and after the surgery. The folks who texted a friend cut their pill use by four times and those who texted with a stranger were six times less likely to need narcotics.
“Our findings suggest that text messaging may be a more effective intervention that requires no specialized equipment or involvement from clinicians,” the researchers say. “Even more importantly, text-based communication may allow for the analgesic-sparing benefits of social support to be introduced to other clinical settings where this type of support is not otherwise available.”
Of course it seems reasonable to suppose that an activity like texting or game playing would take your mind off your pain and make it hurt less. So, the next time you’re going to the hospital, don’t forget your phone.
