Does booze relieve pain? U researchers test inebriated Minnesota State Fair patrons to find out.

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Does booze relieve pain? U researchers test inebriated Minnesota State Fair patrons to find out. Researcher Jeff Boissoneault also has created a virtual reality bar for his drinking experiments.

The Minnesota Star Tribune October 7, 2024 at 1:00PMDr. Jeff Boissoneault, left, director of the Minnesota Alcohol and Pain Lab, demonstrates on Star Tribune reporter Richard Chin how he uses virtual reality to conduct studies on the relation between alcohol use on pain in his office at the University of Minnesota. ] LEILA NAVIDI • (Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune) Then they recorded how much force the test subject was enduring at the moment that they told the experimenter that the sensation changed from pressure to pain. (Test subjects weren't paid, but they did get a U-branded cup.)

The results indicate that the pain-reducing effects of booze seem to increase in a linear fashion, according to Boissoneault. In other words the more you drink, the less it hurts.

In short, the expression "He's feeling no pain" to describe a drunk person has some scientific basis.

The research also suggests that screenwriters of old western and war movies got it right when they depicted a character taking slugs out of a bottle of whiskey before undergoing an operation without proper anesthesia.

"It's something that's so ingrained in the culture," Boissoneault said of the idea that alcohol eases pain.

The risky side But using alcohol for pain management is risky.

"This is concerning given evidence that chronic heavy alcohol consumption increases risk of developing chronic pain, as well as alcohol-related problems," according to a summary of the experiment.

Boissoneault said the result from the study "does imply that the more you're drinking, the greater the effect of it on pain. But there's also more risk associated with those levels of drinking."

Researchers have found that people who seek treatment for alcohol problems are more likely to have chronic pain than the general population and that the pain was a contributor to their desire to drink.

In the short term, a person may numb the pain by drinking, but in the long term they may be making their problem worse.

Boissoneault said heavy alcohol users are at risk of getting into a vicious cycle, triggering a condition associated with heavy alcohol use called neuropathic pain. They also may experience pain when withdrawing from alcohol.

These links between pain and alcohol use imply that in the long term, heavy alcohol users could reduce their pain by actually using less alcohol, and caregivers may be able to intervene to reduce alcohol use by finding treatments to relieve pain in heavy drinkers.

Boissoneault did other studies in his previous job at the University of Florida, where he and colleagues worked with 3-D game developers to create a virtual reality bar for drinking experiments.

Test subjects would wear VR headsets that made it appear they were sitting in a bar. They took sips of real booze — Yuengling Traditional Lager or Angry Orchard Hard Cider — and set their bottles down on a Bluetooth-connected scale that measured their sip frequency and volume.

Researchers also strapped a thermosensory stimulator to the bare calf of the test subjects.

A thermosensory stimulator is a $30,000 machine with a 3- by 3-centimeter pad that can create temperatures on your skin that range from freezing to "Ouch, that's hot!"

Jeff Boissoneault, director of the Minnesota Alcohol and Pain Lab, wears a thermosensory stimulator, an experimental device which can create a painfully hot feeling on your skin.] LEILA NAVIDI • (Leila Navidi/The Minnesota Star Tribune) The researchers found that when test subjects had the painfully hot (111 degrees F.) pad attached to their leg, men but not women drank their beer faster.

The findings align with other research that shows men are more likely than women to endorse self-management of pain by using alcohol.

Boissoneault said experiments with rodents given access to alcohol also have shown that male rodents were more likely than female rodents to drink from a water bottle with an alcohol solution when subjected to pain.

The virtual reality bar used by U-M researcher Jeff Boissoneault in experiments involving pain and alcohol. Toasting the virtual bar Boissoneault said the virtual bar he and fellow researchers created for drinking research is less expensive, more standardized and perhaps creates a more realistic drinking environment than other drinking experiment settings, which typically involve building a fake bar in a laboratory space or in a room in the basement of a hospital.

The virtual bar, which is being made available to other researchers, is a bright, well-lit room that includes a dartboard, a sign with happy hour specials and picture windows looking out over a mountain vista.

"This is the first one we put together. We call it the Swiss mountain pub," Boissoneault said.

Experimenters can further simulate the bar environment with "a playlist of popular music from the 1970s to 2010s played over the headset."

There can even be other patrons. In one experiment that Boissoneault worked on, test subjects could see a digital person drinking at the other end of the bar.

about the writer Richard ChinRichard Chin is a feature reporter with the Star Tribune in Minneapolis. He has been a longtime Twin Cities-based journalist who has covered crime, courts, transportation, outdoor recreation and human interest stories.

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