想念所愛之人可緩解疼痛

老迷

The mere thought of loved ones can help reduce pain, a new study suggests.
This underscores the importance of social relationships and staying socially connected, according to the study conducted by researchers at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).
In the study, the researchers asked 25 women whether simply looking at a photograph of their loved ones can reduce pain.
The participants had boyfriends with whom they had been in a good relationship for more than six months.
The women received moderately painful heat stimuli to their forearms while they went through a number of different conditions. In one set of conditions, they viewed photographs of their boyfriend, a stranger and a chair.
"When the women were just looking at pictures of their partner, they actually reported less pain to the heat stimuli than when they were looking at pictures of an object or pictures of a stranger," said study co-author Naomi Eisenberger, assistant professor of psychology and director of UCLA's Social and Affective Neuroscience Laboratory. "Thus, the mere reminder of one's partner through a simple photograph was capable of reducing pain."
In another set of conditions, each woman held the hand of her boyfriend, the hand of a male stranger and a squeeze ball. The study found that when women were holding their boyfriends' hands, they reported less physical pain than when they were holding a stranger's hand or a ball while receiving the same amount of heat stimulation.
"This changes our notion of how social support influences people," Eisenberger said. "Typically, we think that in order for social support to make us feel good, it has to be the kind of support that is very responsive to our emotional needs. Here, however, we are seeing that just a photo of one's significant other can have the same effect."
"This study demonstrates how much of an impact our social ties can have on our experience and fits with other work emphasizing the importance of social support for physical and mental health," Eisenberger added.
The researchers advised that the next time people are going through a stressful or painful experience, if they cannot bring a loved one with them, a photo may do.
The study appears in the November 2009 issue of the journal Psychological Science.


研究顯示想念所愛之人可緩解疼痛
當你在遭遇疼痛折磨時，你不妨多想想所愛之人，這樣可以幫助你緩解疼痛——這是美國加利福尼亞大學洛杉磯分校的心理學家的最新發(fā)現(xiàn)。
研究人員在11月刊的英國《心理學》雜志上報告說，他們選擇了25名成年女子作為研究對象，這些女子都有男性戀人，雙方關(guān)系很好，而且相愛的時間至少持續(xù)了6個月以上。
研究人員首先使這些女子的手臂經(jīng)受同等程度的燒灼刺激，然后拿出3張不同的照片——戀人、椅子和陌生人的照片讓她們看。結(jié)果發(fā)現(xiàn)，當這些女子看到戀人的照片時，她們手臂的疼痛感明顯小于當她們看到另外兩張照片時的疼痛感。
研究人員通過幾項相關(guān)試驗得出結(jié)論，當壓力或疾病使你感到痛苦時，而此時你的戀人又不在身邊，不妨多想想所愛之人，如看看他或她的照片，這樣可以起到減輕疼痛的作用。