(Image source from: Phone Works as Anesthesia - You can text a stranger during surgery! })

The patients who are undergoing for minor surgeries, where local anesthesia is administered for giving pain relief, ask for extra narcotics to avoid the pain. Doctors cannot give more than what the surgery required, then what to do? It is simple give a smartphone to the patient and suggest him/her to go for texting.

The idea is weird to hear but it can work out a lot, according to a new study published in the journal Pain Medicine. They have mentioned three options with varied temporary relief. Where the researchers have studied four groups of patients, first group is normal without any phone, second group offered to play the game Angry Birds, third group was given mobile phone to text with a close friend or family member and the fourth group was asked to text a stranger like getting to know conversations.

The surprising results are, patients without phone had pain twice than those playing the angry birds while surgery, the patients texting to the known or close fellows had one fourth of the pain than those of normal method, means the texting reduced the pain to 25 percent; more than six times relief was enjoyed by those who engaged in a texting conversation with a stranger.

The methods have given the results could be because of diversions and the moods, in case of playing game the patients need to concentrate on the game themselves, while texting with a companion makes both positive and negative conversations and with a stranger it has to come across the positive and pleasant discussions.

The report is a general presentation and does not carry any empirical output, so the pain relief and this subject may vary from patient to patient. The surroundings, mental strength, doctors’ support and mood of the patient plays crucial role in pain relief.

-Kannamsai