A couple weeks ago I came across this interesting post by Alfredo Parra on the EA forum on quantifying pain from cluster headaches and I’ve been thinking about it a lot since, so I thought I’d write a bit about pain magnitude, one of its central ideas.
In my own experience of pain, the key factor regarding the severity of pain is related to the degree which it prevents me from doing something. Whether thinking acting reading etc. the kidney stone pain is so severe, because the only thing you can do is write on the floor and retch and can only think about your pain.
I think you could calibrate the correct relative magnitudes if you had some data on pain ratings for individuals who have experienced more than one event
In my own experience of pain, the key factor regarding the severity of pain is related to the degree which it prevents me from doing something. Whether thinking acting reading etc. the kidney stone pain is so severe, because the only thing you can do is write on the floor and retch and can only think about your pain.
I think you could calibrate the correct relative magnitudes if you had some data on pain ratings for individuals who have experienced more than one event