Autism and Pain Sensitivity
ASPartOfMe
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Study suggests link between autism, pain sensitivity
The study, led by Dr. Xiaosi Gu, outlines alternations in pain perception faced by people on the autism spectrum and how those changes can affect them in social functions.
Gu said there were three main findings from the study:
It confirmed that people with ASD are hypersensitive to pain, a finding that has been documented in previous studies.
In a new finding, the study showed that when people with ASD anticipate painful stimulus, their brains generate greater neural responses in the ACC, compared to those without ASD.
In addition, the research indicated that the more brain activity the participants show during pain anticipation, the less they score on an empathy quotient questionnaire. Gu said people with autism often are poor at empathy, which is the ability to understand what another person may be feeling. This result indicates that pain anticipation is related to social impairments faced by those with autism.
She said that a withdrawal from interactions may be a way of protecting oneself.
"The risks of encountering pain are part of daily life and are normal for non-ASD individuals, but may be overwhelming for autistic people," Gu said. "Therefore, one possible explanation of our finding is that to protect themselves, individuals with ASD may not engage in social interactions as much. You reduce the risk of encountering pain or other sensory experiences that are very normal for non-ASD individuals, but not for those with ASD."
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envirozentinel
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As mentioned before and what i have discussed , a self defense mechanism. as a result of feeling TOO MUCH not too little! Also backed up with recent MRI testing that was discussed by Simon Baron Cohan who admitted many on the spectrum actually feel TOO MUCH empathy.. Not sure if it was the same experiments or a separate peer review.
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I'm partially insensitive to pain. I got told that when I felt basically nothing after major abdominal surgery a few years ago. I was doing yard work three days later, when I was told to expect six weeks of recovery.
But weirdly, they mentioned this when I was freaking out trying to get the unused morphine drip off me because I couldn't stand the sensory feeling of it taped to my skin, tethering and pulling at me, and I did not need pain relief.
Instead of saying autistics are hypersensitive to pain, perhaps more accurate would be we can have an atypical response to pain stimuli, either hypersensitive or hyopsensitive.
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StampySquiddyFan
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Wow, that study is very interesting! I feel like it's about time somebody realized that sensory issues play a huge role in most autistic people's lives. We are not just cold and unfeeling.
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Campin_Cat
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I thought this was an interesting part. I know how slow I am to process stuff, so I can totally see how this could happen----like, if someone gave me that questionnaire immediately after the pain thing, I would still be processing the pain thing, and thus, I can understand the possibility of not doing well, on the questionnaire.
Also, as I've said before, and someone else said, here, I feel that it is often that we feel TOO MUCH (including empathy), and are therefore, overwhelmed, and not able to react in a way that is considered appropriate, and/or in a timely manner----we, often, just shutdown, because of that, and that makes us appear cold / unfeeling.
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ASPartOfMe
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Most descriptions of autism discuss hypo as well as hyper sensitvity. Hypo pain sensitivity was ignored here. I think in a self report survey pain survey sensitivity would be skewed towerds hyper. If you are hypo sensitive you are usually going about your life without thinking about what you do not have. Plus it is almost impossible to compare your pain sensitivity to others. If you have pain sensitivity as a special interest and are constantantly comparing yourself to others it might be possible to get a general idea.
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Last edited by ASPartOfMe on 25 Jul 2017, 11:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
They also say one person can have both. I don't know that it's all that difficult to compare pain. I've broken bones and not known and have gotten all of my fillings done without novocain because I hate the way it feels and it's really just not that painful. My dentist thinks I'm nuts. Yet smaller things that might cause discomfort in most people will cause me a lot of pain. Then you get the whole "whats wrong with you, you big baby" thing. The differences can be quite noticeable ... comparable.
ASPartOfMe
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They also say one person can have both. I don't know that it's all that difficult to compare pain. I've broken bones and not known and have gotten all of my fillings done without novocain because I hate the way it feels and it's really just not that painful. My dentist thinks I'm nuts. Yet smaller things that might cause discomfort in most people will cause me a lot of pain. Then you get the whole "whats wrong with you, you big baby" thing. The differences can be quite noticeable ... comparable.
Good point.
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It is Autism Acceptance Month
“My autism is not a superpower. It also isn’t some kind of god-forsaken, endless fountain of suffering inflicted on my family. It’s just part of who I am as a person”. - Sara Luterman
lostonearth35
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They bring the "lack of empathy" garbage into every "study". I'm so sick of it. And I happen to be quite sensitive to pain. Any unusual changes to my body, or just thinking about it, can be downright terrifying. I'm worried that by the time I'm in my 50's I'll be crippled with osteoarthritis and won't be able to walk anymore. If I don't die of a heart attack first.
I'm not sure if I'm more or less sensitive than most people but I definitely have a hard time expressing that I'm in pain. I don't emote well on my face and so I tend not to visibly react or yell out or anything even when I am hurting. Even when I was 6 and I broke my foot, I decided to just hide it and I never told anyone. I broke it again last year at the very beginning of a soccer match and I proceeded to play the whole game on it in severe pain before driving myself to a doctor. Nobody even knew I had hurt myself until a week later when I was in a boot.
So I guess I'm mostly just miserable at knowing how to tell people when I'm hurting. Because if you don't react typically at the time that the painful thing happened, it's kind of weird to go up to someone later and say, "Hey I wanted to tell you that I actually broke my foot 30 minutes ago and nobody noticed since I didn't yell or fall down or do anything to signal any kind of obvious distress at the time!"
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