Does having faith reduce pain symptoms?

Startling headlines such as 'Faith in God eases pain symptoms' and various other similar claims recently made it into the papers. The stories are based on a research study that used a technology called functional MRI. This is an MRI scanner that lets investigators see what is happening in the brain in real time during certain tests.

In this trial they looked at the pain symptoms by believers and non believers when shown a picture of the Virgin Mary.

Interestingly they found that Catholics, when shown the picture, felt less pain and had more activity in the part of the brain that dampens down pain signals.

What the researchers looked at

12 practising Roman Catholics and 12 non-religious subjects, including atheists and agnostics were involved in the study.

All of them either agreed that they either had no religious beliefs, or that they were devout Catholics who prayed daily, attended weekly mass and took part in confession.

The subjects were told that the point of the study was to see whether their pain symptoms changed when looking at different pictures.

Each of them was given a series of electric shocks but just before that they were shown either an image of the Virgin Mary or a painting by Leonardo da Vinci (see left) . The volunteers were then asked how intense the pain was on a pain scale, the effect the image had on their mood and how the image had helped them cope with the pain.

On the whole there was really not much difference between the two groups except the Catholics felt that looking at the religious image reduced their pain.

Both groups felt their mood was improved by the images, the religious group preferred the religious image whereas the non religious group felt better looking at the non religious image.

So religion helps with pain symptoms then?

Hmmm, not necessarily as there were a few problems with this study that mean we can't say that for sure. The results look interesting on the surface but things may not be all they seem

• Firstly, all the volunteers knew the trial was about how the images affected pain. It seems likely they would guess it had something to do with religion and so this might have caused a bias in their responses.
• They only looked at 24 people which are not many really.
• They only looked at Catholics and one image.
• You can't really generalise this to other beliefs and faiths.
• It may be that any comforting image that reinforces what you believe in may be helpful regardless of it being religious or not.

How this may help your back pain symptoms

What this study does show us is that pain is not simply about a painful stimulus causing a uniform, reliable pain. It demonstrates beautifully why pain sensations can vary in intensity and how people can feel differently about the same pain when their external environment is changed. 

Pain is the result of complex physical, emotional and social factors and is controlled by the mind. Anything can influence this either negatively such as fear and worry which make sit all feel worse, or positively such as distraction and fun which makes it feel better. You can influence your pain.

Do you want to read more about the wonderful new things we are learning about pain, and how that can help you manage your back pain symptoms better?  I suggest you visit this pain hub as I have written a fair bit there that may interest you.

References

Wiech, K. et al. An fMRI study measuring analgesia enhanced by religion as a belief system. Pain 139, 467-476(2008).

24-Sep-2012