Dr. Ronald Melzack y Dr.

Patrick Wall
Ronaled Melzack naci en 1929 en una seccin juda de Montreal, Quebec. Sus padres eran
de clase obrera, y tena dos hermanos mayores, Jack y Louis. Debido a que la familia era tan
pobre, slo Ron fue enviado a la universidad, mientras que sus hermanos trabajaron en la
librera de la familia, que luego se convertira en una exitosa cadena conocida como "Libreras
clsicas".
Ron era un buen estudiante, pero nunca desarroll mucho interes por algun tema
especifico. Esto provoc problemas cuando se matricul en la Universidad McGill despus de
la secundaria.
Como Ron no tena gran inters en las ciencias duras, le result difcil hacerlo bien en la
universidad. Nada de lo que haca pareca que realmente le interesaba. Una introduccin
elemental a la psicologa, sin embargo, cambi de opinin. Ron pudo transferir con xito sus
cursos de ciencias a un programa de psicologa. Curiosamente, el Presidente de la Psicologa
en el momento no era otro que Great Canadian psiclogo Donald Hebb. Hebb servira Mster
de Ron y doctorado supervisor. Con una fuerte influencia conductista en su momento, Ron
estudi perros con "miedo irracional", como el miedo de los paraguas de apertura.
Despus est recibiendo su doctorado en 1954, el doctor Melzack decidi explorar ms a fondo
los miedos irracionales de los animales. La Universidad de Oregon le atrajo por laboratorio de
fisiologa del doctor William Livingston para las ratas, as como personas. Fue en este
laboratorio que el Dr. Melzack fue expuesto por primera vez al enigma del dolor.Una mujer cuya
pierna haba sido amputada se quej de un dolor terrible en la pierna que haba sido
eliminado! Dr. Melzack tom buena nota de las personas como ella, y que volvera a estudiar
en los prximos aos.
Despus de pasar tiempo en la University College de Londres y la Universidad de Pisa en Italia,
el doctor Melzack se convirti en un miembro de la facultad en el Instituto de Tecnologa de
Massachusetts (MIT), donde se reuni con el Dr. Patrick Wall, que tena pensamientos e ideas
que rodean el fenmeno similares de dolor.

Dr. Patrick Wall - 1925-2001

Dr. Patrick Wall, un mdico britnico, se convertira en uno de los contactos de toda la vida del
doctor Melzack. Juntos en el MIT, cuestionaron las ideas actuales sobre el dolor. En el
momento, el dolor se considera que es un evento muy simple. Cuanto mayor sea el grado de
daos en el cuerpo, se experiment el mayor grado de dolor. El dolor se piensa que es un
"sistema de alerta" que no cambia primitivo que el cuerpo estaba en peligro, y la mente tena
poco que ver con eso.
Dr. Melzack y el Dr. Wall, sin embargo, se dieron cuenta de que algunas personas sienten un
dolor inmenso cuando el dao en el cuerpo era mnima, y algunas personas con lesiones
traumticas experimentaron poco o ningn dolor hasta un momento posterior.Durante aos, los
doctores Muro y Melzack discuten estos pacientes peculiares, y en 1965, teora de la puertaControl del Dolor se public.
Teora de control propuesto que el dolor no era tan simple como la literatura sugiere. Melzack y
Wall propusieron que los factores psicolgicos y el medio ambiente juegan un papel importante
en cmo se experimenta el dolor. En palabras del Dr. Melzack, "Hay ejemplos de los soldados
en el frente de batalla que han sufrido lesiones graves, pero no sienten dolor al principio. Lo
que saben es que estn vivos, han escaparon de la muerte, y el cerebro pueden procesar [el
dolor] casi como una cosa buena ".
"Entonces, es posible que vea a alguien con dolor de gas suave que est experimentando el
dolor intolerable porque su amigo se est muriendo de cncer de estmago y eso es lo que
est pensando."Teora de control, dice lo que el campo de la medicina biolgica impulsada trata
de evitar - que el dolor es subjetivo y, finalmente, a merced del cerebro.
Dr. Melzack regres a McGill donde observ ms pacientes que sufren de dolor crnico o
agudo. Pensando en sus das en la Universidad de Oregon y los individuos particulares con
"miembro fantasma" el dolor, el doctor Melzack cre una de las herramientas ms poderosas
en la investigacin del dolor en la actualidad: el Cuestionario de Dolor de McGill. El uso de
palabras tales como "ardiente", "quemando", y "apualar", el paciente es capaz de determinar
exactamente qu tipo de dolor es sentido y en qu medida. El cuestionario fue
abrumadoramente til y desde entonces ha sido traducido a ms de 20 idiomas que se utilizan
en todo el mundo.
El dolor est en el seno del doctor Melzack. Sus dos hermanos, Jack y Louis tanto sufrieron
innecesariamente en la opinin del doctor Melzack ya que perdieron sus vidas al cncer. Lo
menos que puede hacer, dice, es tratar de evitar el sufrimiento innecesario de los dems.
En la actualidad el Dr. Melzack es profesor emrito en la Universidad de McGill. Si bien ha
disminuido acadmicamente, todava investiga activamente el dolor. Recientemente ha
desarrollado un inters en los dolores de parto, tanto en humanos como en animales.
El trabajo del Dr. Melzack ha despertado la curiosidad de los investigadores en diversos
campos, desde la fisiologa a la psicologa de charlas motivacionales. Trabajo de vida del Dr.
Melzack ha ayudado al mundo a entender que el dolor no es tan simple como pensbamos. Un
investigador del dolor en la Universidad de Alberta, Dr. Bruce Dick dice: "Melzack hizo para el
dolor lo que Einstein hizo por la fsica."

Ronaled Melzack was born in 1929 in a largely Jewish section of Montreal, Quebec. His parents
were working class, and he had two older brothers, Jack and Louis. Because the family was so
poor, only Ron was sent to university while his brothers worked at the family bookstore, which
would later become a successful chain known as "Classic Bookshops". Ron was a good
student, but had never developed a strong interest in any particular subject. This would cause
him problems when he enrolled at McGill University after high school.
As Ron had no strong interest in the hard sciences, he found it difficult to do well at university.
Nothing he did seemed to really interest him. A rudimentary introduction to psychology, however,
changed his mind. Ron was able to successfully transfer his science courses to a psychology
program. Interestingly, the Chairman of Psychology at the time was none other than Great
Canadian Psychologist Donald Hebb. Hebb would serve as Ron's Master's and PhD supervisor.
With a strong behaviourist influence at the time, Ron studied dogs with "irrational fears" such as
the fear of umbrellas opening.
After recieving his PhD in 1954, Dr. Melzack chose to further explore irrational fears in animals.
The University of Oregon attracted him because of Dr. William Livingston's physiology
laboratory for rats as well as people. It was in this laboratory that Dr. Melzack was first exposed
to the puzzle of pain. A woman whose leg had been amputated complained of terrible pain in the
leg that had been removed! Dr. Melzack took careful note of individuals like her, and would
return to study them in years to come.
After spending time at the University College London, and the University of Pisa in Italy, Dr.
Melzack became a faculty member at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he
met Dr. Patrick Wall, who had similar thoughts and ideas surrounding the phenomenon of pain.
Dr. Patrick Wall, a British doctor, would become one of Dr. Melzack's lifelong contacts. Together
at MIT, they questioned current ideas about pain. At the time, pain was considered to be a very
simple event. The higher the degree of damage to the body, the larger degree pain was
experienced. Pain was thought to be a primitive, unchanging "warning system" that the body
was in danger, and the mind had little to do with it.
Dr. Melzack and Dr. Wall, however, noticed that some individuals felt immense pain when
damage to the body was minimal, and some people with traumatic injuries experienced little or
no pain until a later time. For years, Drs Wall and Melzack discussed these peculiar patients,
and in 1965, Gate-Control Theory of Pain was published.
Gate control theory proposed that pain was not as simple as the literature suggested. Melzack
and Wall proposed that psychological factors and environment play a large role in how pain is
experienced. In Dr. Melzack's words, "There are examples of soldiers at the battlefront who
have suffered severe injuries, but they feel no pain initially. What they know is that they're still
alive, they've escaped death, and the brain might process [pain] almost as a good thing."
"Then you might see someone with mild gas pain who is experiencing it as intolerable pain
because his close friend is dying from stomach cancer and that's what he's thinking about."
Gate control theory says what the biologically driven field of medicine tries to avoid - that pain is
subjective and ultimately at the mercy of the brain.
Dr. Melzack returned to McGill where he further observed patients suffering from chronic or
acute pain. Thinking back to his days at the University of Oregon and the peculiar individuals
with "phantom limb" pain, Dr. Melzack created one of the most powerful tools in pain research
today: the McGill Pain Questionnaire. Using words such as "searing," "burning," and "stabbing",
the patient is able to pinpoint exactly which type of pain is being felt and to what degree. The
questionnaire was overwhelmingly helpful and has since been translated to over 20 languages
to be used worldwide.

Pain is close to Dr. Melzack's heart. His two brothers, Jack and Louis both suffered needlessly
in Dr. Melzack's opinion as they lost their lives to cancer. The least he can do, he says, is try to
prevent needless suffering in others.
Presently Dr. Melzack is a professor emeritus at McGill University. While he has slowed down
academically, he still actively investigates pain. He has recently developed an interest in labour
pains, both in humans and animals.
Dr. Melzack's work has piqued the curiosity of researchers in various fields, from physiology to
psychology to motivational speaking. Dr. Melzack's life work has helped the world understand
that pain is not as simple as we had thought. One pain researcher at the University of Alberta,
Dr. Bruce Dick says, "Melzack did for pain what Einstein did for physics."