Experimental Pain Hypersensitivity in Schizophrenic Patients

Abstract

Under these conditions, schizophrenic patients were hypersensitive to pain induction compared with normal individuals. The hypoalgesia typically associated with schizophrenic patients may correspond to fewer than normal reports of pain, rather than to impaired sensations of pain. This should be taken into account during routine medical practice.

Clinical Pain in Schizophrenia: A Forgotten Area

“…Reduced pain expression (which might be mistaken for reduced pain sensitivity) has also been put forward as a marker of "hypofrontality" in schizophrenia (Bonnot et al 2009 ;El-Mallakh et al 2005 ). However, the association between clinical symptoms of schizophrenia and pain has not consistently been found (Girard et al 2011 ).…”

“…Merely considering experimental and case studies might not fully represent pain in schizophrenia. Abilities such as a fast response and an adequate expression of pain might be impaired in people with schizophrenia, consequently biasing results (Girard et al 2011 ). Pain reaction might also depend on the type of experimental manipulation.…”

“…The question whether patients with schizophrenia are indeed "insensitive" to pain has been addressed in experimental studies in persons with schizophrenia. Thermal (de la Fuente-Sandoval et al 2011 ;de la Fuente-Sandoval et al 2010 ;Dworkin et al 1993 ), electrical (Blumensohn et al 2002 ;Collins and Stone 1966 ;Kudoh et al 2000 ), cold (Atik et al 2007 ), refl ex (Guieu et al 1994 ), and tactile stimulations (Girard et al 2011 ;Karst et al 2005 ) have been utilized to assess pain threshold and pain tolerance in schizophrenia. Several experimental pain studies found persons with schizophrenia to be less sensitive to pain compared to healthy controls, as measured by pain threshold or tolerance (Atik et al 2007 ;Blumensohn et al 2002 ;de la Fuente-Sandoval et al 2010 ;Kudoh et al 2000 ).…”

Phytotherapeutical implications in pain perception - focusing on schizophrenia

“…Although there are studies that prove the absence of any differences between normal group and schizophrenic patients [21], Strassnig and collaborators claim that people suffering from schizophrenia feel pain at a higher level [22,23]. Another research that sustains the Strassnig hypothesis is made by Girard and collaborators who tested tolerance to pain in similar medical conditions and noticed hypersensitivity to pain in schizophrenic patients [24,25]. Consequently, taking into account all the research regarding pain in schizophrenia one thing is certain, altered pain perception is a fact in schizophrenic disorder [26].…”

Development and characterization of chronic animal models of schizophrenia

“…Thermal, electrical, cold and tactile stimulation have been utilized to assess pain threshold and pain tolerance in schizophrenia [8][9][10][11]. A significant part of these experimental pain studies concluded that persons with schizophrenia appear to be less sensitive to pain compared to healthy controls.…”