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The Anomalous Niche: The Issue of Chronic Pain

  • Homura

    A recent issue of the New England Journal of Medicine talks of the existence of chronic pain and addiction as a definite tension between that of patients’ interests and the interest of physicians. Interestingly, this issue is also very core to Pokemon as an ethical dilemma. It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the issues of such ethics. In Pokemon the general idea is to use Pokemon to fight each other as essentially a sport. Without surprise the issue of chronic pain would also arise from such battles. Pokemon absolutely hurt each other with an endpoint in causing the other Pokemon to faint or otherwise be unable to fight. So at best the endpoint in any given battle is a concussion to a Pokemon. In addition, we know from simple physiology that repeated damage to the physical body is a common cause of chronic pain in humans. It isn’t a stretch to apply this to out beloved monstrous friends. If chronic pain is a problem with the existence of Pokemon battles, then it should be noted that just like in the real world, the Pokemon world must also be in a position to deal with this issue. How would one do so in a world where battling Pokemon is the norm as gladiatorial battles. I’d suppose that chronic pain management would be a common issue that nurse Joy would have to deal with on a daily basis. To see how she can help the Pokemon, we must look to our real world for inspiration. Within our world there are many different methods of controlling pain depending on the type of pain. However the most common way to do so is via the use of prescription pain killers. This serves as a problem. The first is also ready stated. Pain drugs are notorious for being addictive in nature. In fact, it has been documented certain aspects of pain drugs also can cause liver failure with overuse. However the idea of pain control does warrant larger and larger doses of such a pain killer in order to keep up wit both the increase in pain and also the increase in tolerance and dependency. Tolerance necessitates that exposure would problematically cause a need for more and more drugs over time. As a Pokemon would take a pain killer, the next time the same amount of pain would require them to have more to suppress the pain. In the same vain, dependency means that if take the pain killer out of the equation, the Pokemon was so used to having the pain killer that they have a physical need to get it. In the real world we have limited alternative functions. We can give pain killers that doesn’t generally cause liver problems. That doesn’t solve the problem of tolerance and dependency either, just one that doesn’t have the problem of liver failure. The biggest barrier with this, of course, is that nurse Joy can’t prescribe anything. Period. Perhaps alternative ways to control pain? Acupuncture and physiotherapy have their uses after all. Perhaps this can be useful to humanoid Pokemon. We can’t be entirely sure something like that world work on say a Ditto, though acupressure has been a useful ability to increase the latent abilities of Pokemon anyway. There is merit in trying these methods as well. Acupuncture is the idea of changing energy flows within the body via the use of needles and heat. It is an ancient Chinese technique that has had much success in the East and now in the West. If in our imaginary Pokemon world we apply the same ideas, not only would nurse Joy be employing a staff of Chansey, Blissey, and Audino, but also a squad of Doduo and Meditite. I chose those two in particular due to their general size. The majority of the Pokemon would have the appropriate sizes for acupuncture in particular. Larger creatures can apply themselves with Drapion or other large Pokemon. In addition physical therapy, a more traditional method of helping others within the medical realms, is a viable choice. To here, specially trained Pokemon can help relieve tension and pain from amongst the Pokemon. These techniques are definitely tried and true, but they require perseverance on the part of the patient Pokemon, and to be honest that may become an issue. That same issue that I can see with these are the required regular use of the facilities. While the use of information technologies are viable in the world of Pokemon, trainers are heavy travelers, and can cross regions at the blink of an eye. Unless a global link between every single Pokemon Center exists, it would become extremely difficult to track each Pokemon’s problems and treat them properly. As I have said, this is an interesting problem in the Pokemon world. However, unlike our world, they are definitely more equipped to tackle the problem compared to us. It is in that note that I think the discussion of this issue would remain. I think that nurse Joy and the healing Pokemon may have more tricks up their sleeve that may not be apparent. For example, maybe the pokeball as a device can be used to help with these issues. Their innovations are staggering, and thus we can leave this on a lighter note: Pokemon can solve the problem of chronic pain.


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