Globally BoundAbout

The heavy tail of valence

New strategies to quantify and reduce extreme suffering

By Alfredo Parra-Hinojosa

March 21, 2025

Contents

In this talk at Newspeak House in London, I discuss the importance of addressing extreme suffering, highlighting cluster headaches as a vivid example of severe pain that's often overlooked by common global health metrics. I explain the shortcomings of tools like DALYs in representing the true severity of intense yet less prevalent pain conditions. I also present promising solutions, including advocating for psychedelic treatments, investigating alternative remedies like chanca piedra for kidney stones, and promoting focused research.

Timestamps

  • 0:01 - Introduction to extreme suffering (cluster headaches, kidney stones).
  • 0:06 - Motivation (David Pierce & Brian Tomasik).
  • 0:33 - Alfredo Parra's journey to QRI.
  • 1:48 - QRI's focus: Ethical, intuitive, neuroscientific, pragmatic reasons.
  • 4:01 - Quantifying human extreme suffering.
  • 5:01 - Cluster headaches case study.
  • 5:43 - Pain description and intensity.
  • 6:58 - Episodic vs. chronic headaches.
  • 8:03 - Global pain burden quantification (person-years/days).
  • 12:07 - Limitations of DALY metrics for intense pain.
  • 15:22 - "Surgery without anesthesia" analogy.
  • 18:38 - Ceiling effect in pain measurement.
  • 20:36 - Kidney stones: prevalence and intensity.
  • 21:31 - Chanca Piedra (herbal remedy) analysis.
  • 29:14 - Call to action for QRI's research.
  • 29:57 - QRI's ongoing work: psychedelics, pain visualization.
  • 31:17 - Cluster headaches vs. migraines.
  • 33:23 - Barriers to addressing cluster headaches.
  • 34:16 - Strategies for awareness and funding.
  • 36:50 - Non-hallucinogenic psychedelic analogs.