EUROPE/ITALY - The perception of pain in different cultures: St Giuseppe Hospital Milan discusses doctor-patient approach

Thursday, 24 November 2005

Rome (Fides Service) - “The perception of pain in medicine - ethics, culture and religion” was the theme of a meeting held at San Giuseppe Fatebenefratelli Hospital; Milan on the experience, communication and multi-dimensional approach to pain, an important aspect of medical care. In fact a main objective of medical care is to alleviate pain. Individuals live and show pain in different ways according to their own ethic, cultural, philosophical and religious experience.
In the present multi-ethnic world medical intervention on pain cannot be separated from humanistic and spiritual values of the person in pain. It is necessary to strike a balance between technology, ethics and culture making use of religious knowledge which characterise multi ethnicity.
In language that was immediate and simple but nevertheless exhaustive and complete the meeting offered health workers and the general public an opportunity for reflection and a point of departure in the search for the right doctor-patient approach with regard to pain considering different modalities of pain perception mediated by ethnic origin and religion.
After a historical cultural introduction to the perception of pain, the question was tackled by a doctor, a Catholic moral theologian, a rabbi, an expert in Tibetan medicine and an expert in Buddhism and Hinduism. (AP) (24/11/2005 Agenzia Fides; Righe:23; Parole:260)


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