Proceedings of The 6th Global Conference on Women’s Studies
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Analyzing Pain Modulation Through Analgesics in the United States: How Studies Historically Exacerbated the Gender Pain Gap
Ahana Raghavan
ABSTRACT:
Pain medicine has a long history, with the Egyptians and Babylonians first using bleeding and trepanning to modulate pain (Doleys). But with the birth of pain medicine came the birth of inequities. We find that in the United States, the drugs that we take to cure diseases and improve our quality of life may not even be as effective as marketed for half of the population. This paper seeks to compile various studies done over the years regarding the pain treatment women have received and study the various factors involved in women being treated differently for managing their chronic and episodic pain. These studies will be used to depict the consequences of historic bias on female health as well as the consensus scientists have been trying to reach on how to renavigate the future of pain medicine in an equitable fashion. The findings explain the importance of increasing the amount of women-centric studies, clinical trials with more data from women, and women in the analgesic research and development process. Understanding the historical exclusion of women from pain medicine studies and the impact this has had on physician care necessitates a deeper look into the biological underpinnings of pain perception.
keywords: nociception, pain medicine, gender pain gap, equity, healthcare, analgesics