|
|
|
WHAT'S NEW
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Gender-Based Pain Relief?
|
|
|
The different ways men and women process pain could change the way doctors prescribe drugs.
|
|
|
By Alicia Priest
|
|
|
|
|
0ne day, painkillers could be colour-coded for each sex. That's what University of McGill psychology professor Jeffery Mogil thinks, based on new research into the different ways males and females process pain.
Mogil is co-chair for the International Society for the Study of Pain. The popular assumption is that women tolerate pain better than men because of their experience with childbirth and menstruation. But among scientists, Mogil says, "The consensus now is females are a little more sensitive to pain than men."
Now U.S. scientists have found a plausible explanation. Male mice, they discovered, have a natural pain-control system that females don't and the key to that system is a protein called GIRK2, which plays a role in communication between brain cells. Women may use different proteins. If this proves true, MogiI says, "One day there will likely be blue pills and pink pills," that is, specific drugs for the different sexes.
Homemakers, May 2003
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 more articles |
|
|
|
|
|
|
