'Let Me Take Your Pain Away' in Iran

TEHRAN, Iran, Feb. 20, 2008 — -- "Dardat be joonem," the saying goes in Iran — let me take away your pain.

It's more often said between family and friends, but the phrase isn't far from the work of Dr. Mohammad Sharify, head of the Iranian Pain Society.

He's one of only a few dozen doctors in Iran focusing on pain management. As head of the Iranian Pain Society, a chapter of the Seattle-based International Associated for the study of pain, healing pain in Persia has become his life's work.

"Pain is something like a torture. … Pain can even kill so when you are relieving someone from torture, it's great satisfaction for you," said Sharify.

In Iran, modern medicine accounts for the bulk of pain management treatments, from drug therapy to trophic exercises, nerve blocks and electrical stimulation.

But traditional therapies have a role. Rosemary oil, lavender oil and olive oil are rubbed into skin for topical pain relief. Hypnosis is used to alleviate pain during childbirth. Acupuncture is widely available.

"There are some documents from 2000 years ago that show that Iranian people were doing something like tattoo [for pain management]," Sharify told ABC News.

"They put some colorful drugs [on the skin] as traditional remedies … like acupuncture."

Religion, a central part of life in the Islamic Republic, plays an unofficial medical role in Iran. Sharify describes it as a useful tool in the pain management kit.

"When [an] 80-year-old lady in [the] village is experiencing pain, her child will come and say, 'OK, mother, don't worry God wants this, is good for you, maybe this is your luck for today.' That lady says, 'OK, maybe this is something from God, from the prophet.' … Religious beliefs, some traditional beliefs can have an effect on [the] pain experience," Sharify said.

"When I'm concentrating my mind on religious beliefs, to God, to holy books … this kind of attention may raise my pain threshold."

Sharify places the medical benefits of faith within the context of what he calls "attention distraction techniques," such as music therapy, self-hypnosis or aromatherapy.