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How emotional pain can
really hurt
By Vivienne Parry Radio
4's The Pain Of Emotion
Love really does
hurt, just as poets and song lyric writers claim.
New brain scanning
technologies are revealing that the part of the brain that processes
physical pain also deals with emotional pain. And in the same way
that in some people injury can cause long-lasting chronic pain,
science now reveals why some will never get over such heartbreak.
Emotional pain can take many forms; a relationship break-up or
social exclusion, for example. But it does not get any more extreme
than losing a loved one, as Scottish broadcaster Mark Stephen did.
In July 1995 he was driving a tractor while hay-making and
accidentally hit his young daughter. She died shortly afterwards.
Mark's grief was
overwhelming, he says.
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"If you
listen to people who are damaged emotionally, they will
often translate their pain into physical similes "
Professor David
Alexander, Aberdeen Centre for Trauma Research
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"When people talk
about a broken heart, that for me was where it was seated, just
below your sternum.
"It feels like your
heart is leaking and you can't run away from it because you are the
source of that pain."
Thinking he would go
mad with grief, he sought help from David Alexander. Professor
Alexander is director of the Aberdeen Centre for Trauma Research. He
led the psychiatric team that first responded to the Piper Alpha
oil-rig disaster. Since then, he has been involved in helping
survivors of many disasters including the Asian tsunami, the war in
Iraq and, most recently, the earthquake in Pakistan. He also
managed to get Mark Stephen through his darkest days.
'My guts are
aching'
Professor Alexander
is not surprised about the link between physical and emotional pain:
"If you listen to
people who are damaged emotionally, they will often translate their
pain into physical similes: 'My head is bursting, my guts are
aching' and so on. The parallel is very strong."
But medical research
has tended to concentrate on physical pain. Neuroscientist Mary
Frances O'Connor at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)
is one of the scientists who have propelled emotional pain up the
research agenda. "We're at a very new time when we can use
technologies to look at the brain and the heart," she says. Naomi
Eisenberger at UCLA has shown which parts of the brain are active
when we feel emotional pain. She devised an intriguing computer
game in which participants were deliberately made to feel left out.
Simultaneous brain scanning revealed that the pain of being socially
rejected was processed in much the same way in the brain as physical
pain and in the same area, the anterior cingulate cortex.
'Complex grief'
Why should physical
and emotional pain be linked in this way?
Social relationships
are crucial to our survival as a species. In dangerous situations, a
lone human is in peril whereas a group may survive.
"The social
attachment system is piggy-backed onto the physical pain system to
make sure we stay connected to close others," says Naomi Eisenberger.
"Being wrenched from
another or rejected by a group is painful, so we avoid it."
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"There is an
increased risk of dying in the six months after bereavement
"
Professor Martin
Cowie, Brompton Hospital
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Physical pain warns
us not to do something, walk on a broken ankle for instance. And
emotional pain too can be a warning - "don't go near that sort of
man again", "avoid women like her".
But sometimes
physical pain can become chronic, long outlasting its original
purpose, and emotional pain is the same. Mary Frances O'Connor calls
it "complex grief" and it occurs in about 10% of people after
bereavement.
"They experience a
lot of bitterness and anger, that their future is senseless. They
don't adapt with time as others do."
There is a very
strong suspicion that people who are not adapting to bereavement are
also those who experience the greatest levels of physical pain.
But can we die from a
broken heart? Martin Cowie is professor of cardiology at the
Brompton Hospital. He is very sure of the answer: "Yes, we can.
"There is an increased risk of dying in the six months after
bereavement and it's particularly marked amongst men." The bereaved
are much more likely to be involved in accidents, which is perhaps
understandable, but also to die from heart attacks and stroke. The
hormones involved in the stress of bereavement make these events
more likely. This knowledge makes it essential to identify and treat
those whose emotional pain is likely to become chronic, causing
debilitating depression or even death.
The Pain Of
Emotion will be broadcast on Monday, 21 July, 2008 at 2100 BST on
BBC Radio 4, and for seven days on
BBC
iPlayer
source:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7512107.stm
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