Introduction: The goal of this study was to use a novel approach to pain relief which includes a participant using their mind to reduce or relieve their neck pain in a matter of minutes and taking continuous thermal m...Introduction: The goal of this study was to use a novel approach to pain relief which includes a participant using their mind to reduce or relieve their neck pain in a matter of minutes and taking continuous thermal medical imaging scans during the process to capture any concurrent temperature changes at the location of the self-reported pain. Previous studies using multidisciplinary approaches have shown that it is possible for a person to achieve a moderate reduction in pain over a period of time (typically two or more months). However, in this innovative study, the goal was to demonstrate rapid pain relief (in a matter of minutes) using only the mind. Case report: For this study, six subjects were selected, all of whom were experiencing long-term chronic neck pain. The subjects consisted of five adult females and one adult male. Several of the subjects also had pain that radiated into their upper back region. Each subject participated in one talk therapy session during which the subject’s neck was actively scanned by a thermal imaging (TI) camera that was programmed to take a new thermal image every thirty (30) seconds. The goal of the talk therapy session was to create a strong emotional shift by encouraging the subject to let go of negative emotions and replace buried painful feelings with feelings of positive expectation and optimism. Then, as the subject created this emotional shift, the goal was to observe if this change affected the subject’s self-reported physical pain, as well as noting any visible effects in thermal images. Results: All six subjects reported that they were able to relieve some or all of their pain by the end of the talk therapy session. As they did, there was simultaneously a significant decrease in temperature recorded on the TI images in the corresponding location in their neck and upper back region. This suggested that the pain relief the subjects reported was not merely “mind over matter”, since there were marked physiological changes taking place. Discussion and Conclusio展开更多
文摘Introduction: The goal of this study was to use a novel approach to pain relief which includes a participant using their mind to reduce or relieve their neck pain in a matter of minutes and taking continuous thermal medical imaging scans during the process to capture any concurrent temperature changes at the location of the self-reported pain. Previous studies using multidisciplinary approaches have shown that it is possible for a person to achieve a moderate reduction in pain over a period of time (typically two or more months). However, in this innovative study, the goal was to demonstrate rapid pain relief (in a matter of minutes) using only the mind. Case report: For this study, six subjects were selected, all of whom were experiencing long-term chronic neck pain. The subjects consisted of five adult females and one adult male. Several of the subjects also had pain that radiated into their upper back region. Each subject participated in one talk therapy session during which the subject’s neck was actively scanned by a thermal imaging (TI) camera that was programmed to take a new thermal image every thirty (30) seconds. The goal of the talk therapy session was to create a strong emotional shift by encouraging the subject to let go of negative emotions and replace buried painful feelings with feelings of positive expectation and optimism. Then, as the subject created this emotional shift, the goal was to observe if this change affected the subject’s self-reported physical pain, as well as noting any visible effects in thermal images. Results: All six subjects reported that they were able to relieve some or all of their pain by the end of the talk therapy session. As they did, there was simultaneously a significant decrease in temperature recorded on the TI images in the corresponding location in their neck and upper back region. This suggested that the pain relief the subjects reported was not merely “mind over matter”, since there were marked physiological changes taking place. Discussion and Conclusio