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Tracy Hampton, PhD

JAMA. 2006;296:2425-2427.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Chicago—When a builder recently arrived at an emergency department, writhing in pain with a 12-inch nail lodged in his foot, nurses carefully removed his boot to find that the nail was harmlessly inserted between two toes. Seeing this, the man's pain suddenly vanished.

At the other end of the spectrum, sometimes people in unusual circumstances are impervious to the pain expected from a genuine injury. For example, individuals injured during an emergency situation may not feel pain until the crisis if over.

Research probing the role of genetics, nervous system damage, emotions, and expectations in pain perception may help physicians better understand and treat individual patients' pain.

Such examples show that "how much damage [to the body] has occurred and how much pain is reported are not necessarily connected," said Irene Tracey, DPhil, of the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom. At the annual meeting . . . [Full Text of this Article]

DIFFERENCES IN PERCEPTION