A little help from your friends just increases pain

Maybe misery doesnt love company.

When physical pain is involved, having an equally suffering friend nearby just makes you feel worse, according to a study published online Thursday in the journal Current Biology.

The study wasnt aimed at figuring out whether we get by with a little help from our friends, but whether we catch emotions from them. It found that the stress induced by a social encounter with a stranger can block emotional contagion that otherwise is rampant between acquaintances. Even mice displayed more pain-related behavior when they suffered beside equally miserable acquaintances, the study suggests.

The contagion of the pain of one is adding to the pain of the other, making it bigger than it otherwise would be, said neuroscientist Jeffrey Mogil of McGill University in Montreal, lead researcher of the study. In both species, this only works if they know each other.

For the mice, the experiments involved some simple injections and restraints. Humans had to hold a hand in a bucket of water chilled to 39 degrees Fahrenheit.

Subjects rated their pain while soaking their hand, then were paired with either an acquaintance or a stranger. When just one person in the pair was experiencing the pain of the cold water, there was no change in anyones solo rating of pain. When both were in pain, each reported a higher perception of their own pain if they were paired with someone they knew, but not if they were with suffering strangers, the study found.

Mogils lab, which had already shown a similar effect among mice, wondered whether the stress of meeting strangers had something to do with the difference in pain perceptions. The researchers measured levels of the stress-related hormone cortisol. It was higher during encounters with strangers.

When they administered a drug that blocked the effects of the hormone, it effectively made strangers into friends, upping their pain ratings.

The drug wasnt the only thing that worked to take stress out of the equation, though. Apparently, all you need is love or at least a few Beatles songs. Researchers made some strangers play four Beatles songs together on the video game "Rock Band."

After strangers played the video game together, their pain from the dunking experiment was contagious, an effect that didnt show up if they had played by themselves, according to the study.

Original post:
A little help from your friends just increases pain