Cowboy Anesthesia: Jack Daniels and a Silver Bullet
Happy Birthday to ‘Puter’s bionic back.
You are more machine than man, now, ‘Puter, twisted, and evil…
You asked about Manhattans being your most effective analgesic in your post this morning. Dr. J. thought he would share a little insight. Alcohol is a central nervous system depressant. As such it can lessen perception of pain.
There was an interesting study, about 16 years ago. A group of Canadian investigators studied men with and without a strong family history of alcoholism. They were randomized to 4 alcohol doses and underwent a shock treatment. The pain was rated during and after the shock, both sober and after consuming alcohol.
High risk men rated the shock as more painful than controls did. The ‘therapeutic’ levels of alcohol normalized the pain rating to that of the control group.
Back in the day, IV alcohol was used as an analgesic agent (E.T, Reitmann, Journal of the Tennessee State Medical Association, 1946; E.R. Chapman, P.T. Williams Jr, American Journal of Ob/Gyn, 1951).
