This review suggests that despite Bees Venom Therapy (BVT) is commonly used and beneficial to treat chronic pain, using ‘Pain against pain’ could represent a self-harming behavior that might be a symptom of a mental disorder.
Bee Stings and Chronic Pain Disorder
2018 Jan
Peter Steffen, Hannes Hofbauer, and Michael Noll-Hussong
Abstract
Chronic pain is a major problem of public health, and patients seek manifold forms of help to find relief. Here we present and discuss the case of a middle-aged woman suffering from mental disorders who treated her headache with the self-application of bee stings on her back.
Keywords: chronic pain, psychiatry, pain management, bee, headache, mental health, psycho- social behaviour, psychosomatic medicine, complementary and alternative medicine, placebo
Conclusions
BV is widely used in complementary medicine, despite the lack of evidence-based knowledge. ‘Pain against pain’ could be subjectively beneficial in individual patients and could represent a self-harming behaviour that might be a symptom of a mental disorder.
