Is there any link between ASD and chronic pain?

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I have a chronic pain condition which has really deteriorated over the last few years. I really struggling with it now and don't really know which way to go treatment-wise. My GP is really supportive but there are limits to what can be done. I was just wondering if there is any link between ASD and chronic pain that anyone knows about?

Many thanks,
Jo

I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised. I used to experience terrible chronic pain. I still experience physical symptoms like pain a lot but I manage it 100 times better since my awareness of my AS over a year ago now and so better managing things in that respect.

mee too. but when I de-acidified my diet as best as possible, much of my disabling pain went away due to reduction of systemic inflammation.

Used to suffer from it in my lower back quite a bit. Still get the random flare-up but no where near what I used to which would make me bed-ridden for a week or so. Pretty much vanished since I started weightlifting regularly a year ago. Basically forced me into a better posture.

I wouldn't be surprised of a link. I myself and a few others on the spectrum I know of would slouch and such constantly which could easily lead to chronic pain, especially in the back, neck and shoulders.

I wonder if there is a link between ASD and musculoskeletal ails such as scoliosis?

I've long had spinal troubles. also one leg 20+mm longer than the other which made the spinal stuff worse.

I experience some chronic pain, which considering my age, says something.

I know a Pain Specialist quite well, and so I asked him.

In his opinion, the sensory issues hypersensitive ASDers face may make normal pain feel worse because of the hyper-sensitivities(NB: some ASDers actually are LESS sensitive than normal)

One issue that is VERY highly correlated with chronic pain is a history of Psychological trauma.

I was recently diagnosed with "Hypermobility Syndrome" (which is a fancy way for saying double jointed). I'm having issues with pain and polling in joints. When I was researching it I remember reading several articles that suggested there was a link between Hypermobility issues, chronic pain issues, and autism (one of the articles was exclusively related to sensory processing disorders and not autism).

I also know there is a link between depression/mental, chronic fatigue syndrome, and fibromyalgia.

Hi.

I was recently diagnosed with autism. I'm in my 40's, and I've had chronic pain, and muscles that won't relax for as long as I can remember. My general practitioner is uninterested in my pain. As soon as I mentioned it, she said she ignores conditions that are ongoing, because she thinks they're stable.

I don't think it's stable to be in constant pain, though, and I'm trying desperately to find out what's wrong with me, so I can fix it without her help. I've found some supplements that are helping, but I want to know why!

You might want to think about seeking an evaluation for Ehlers Danlos, a genetic connective tissue disorder that can sometimes cause chronic pain, and /might/ be more commonly found in autistic people. I have also recently been reading about a condition some autistic people have called, "OXPHOS", which can have chronic pain as a symptom. I'm seeing a highly recommended geneticist later this year, and I guess I'll ask him if he thinks I should be tested for either of those.

I guess any doctor who wants to, and is qualified, can evaluate a patient for Ehlers Danlos. But there are several types of Ehlers Danlos, and a few of them can be confirmed through genetic testing. That's why I'm going to a geneticist. My doctor won't even give me five minutes to talk about it, and she can't do genetic testing, anyway.

If your doctor is easy to talk to, though, you can ask at your regular visit about being evaluated for Ehlers Danlos.

Here's a link about OXPHOS, which I've only just started to read myself. http://www.mitoaction.org/files/Autism-OXPHOS_1.pdf

One of the types of Ehlers Danlos is called the hypermobile type.

Thank you, slave. That's very true, and I do have an extensive trauma history. Chronic exposure to trauma can create a chronic inflammatory response, which actually would respond to the same types of supplements that I'm reading about currently.

My reading is focusing on mitochondrial dysfunction, and how short chain fatty acids, and medium chain fatty acids may improve the function of the mitochondria. If the mitochondria are exhausted, due to exposure to constant, prolonged injury, as is common in people with a traumatic history, or a connective tissue disorder like Ehlers Danlos, or if there are digestive disorders, as might be found in some people with a traumatic history, a connective tissue disorder, autism, or disorders like Crohn's disease, that interfere with the proper nutrients getting to the cells in the body, then the mitochondria are unable to function properly, and chronic pain can be one result.

I've found some information that shows short and medium chain fatty acids are easy food for the mitochondria. When they are properly fed, they have the energy to respond to signals from the brain, and can do the work that reduces the inflammation, and chronic pain.

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/105/3/367.full
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23703093
http://pen.sagepub.com/content/38/5/587.abstract

I have been taking an herb, called Burdock Root (Arctium Lappa) for about five years, and I never understood why it works to reduce some of my pain.

Recently, I learned that it's because it's a food called a prebiotic, and it is changed into a short chain fatty acid during digestion. Having learned that, I wanted to test the idea that my body was responding to short chain fatty acids. So this week I started taking a supplement called GABA, which stands for gamma Aminobutyric Acid. I was feeling pain relief right on the first day. It took about four days for me to feel any result from the burdock root.

Trauma, repeated injury, and digestive disorders all create actual physical dysfunction in the cells of the human body. It's true that PTSD is a very important psychological component of health. It has a physical result that is material, though, and not purely psycho-somatic. It's effect is also somatic. And I'm starting to believe that the effects of trauma or digestive disorders - widespread, chronic pain and inflammation, muscle spasticity, depression, and lots of other stubborn symptoms can be improved by giving the mitochondria the food they need to repair the damage.

I'm not sure yet if I'll be able to stop taking the GABA, once the damage is repaired, or if I can address any digestive problems I might have, since this is all very new to me. I know that if I stop taking the burdock root, the pain it helps with (in my feet and tailbone, mostly) gradually begins to return.

However, up until this week, I didn't know that I might need to consider whether my GI tract is not working right. If I can figure that out, and try to fix it (if that's the problem), then maybe I won't need to take supplements, because my cells will get the right nutrients from the food I eat. I eat pretty healthy, although I also still eat some junk, yet I don't seem to feel better just from eating healthy food, and exercise only increases my pain.

I have been to talk therapy, and tried anti-depressants, and/or anti-psychotics for two years. These medications never improved my pain or depression, and they caused problems with my metabolism, so the psychiatrist recommended that I discontinue taking them, much to my relief. I've also tried many herbal remedies and vitamins that were supposed to reduce pain, and did not work for me. I'm not saying that these things won't work for anyone! I believe that everyone's body chemistry is different, and will respond in unique ways to identical herbs, or vitiamins, or supplements, or treatments! I'm just sharing that I've been working on my own pain relief for probably over thirty years, and now I'm finding what works, and I actually have a logical reason why it works! (For me! It might not work for everyone.)

I'm considering trying co-enzyme Q10, to see if that improves my digestion, and I can get the proper medium and short chain fatty acids out of my diet, instead of taking supplements. If anyone has tried that, or has links to share, I would like to learn more about it!

Trauma may also be very loosely applied to digestive dysfunction, if you consider the viewpoint of your cells, and the mitochondria that power them. If they have been starving for years, that is traumatic to them, I think!

Thanks so much for writing that! You're absolutely right, and it's important to keep PTSD and trauma in mind when thinking about pain! My pain happens to be accompanied by lots of other strange things, such as having some hypermobility, and veins that are visible in my chest - and that could implicate the connective tissue disorder, Ehlers Danlos vascular type. However, I won't know for sure until I get an evaluation, and hopefully genetic testing later this year. If it's not Ehlers Danlos, or OXPHOS, then I might just assume it's simply poor digestion, something I've read can be common in people with autism and people with a traumatic history, and focus on improving that alone.

That was a very good video, slave . . . I'm going to look at the website when I get a chance! Thanks very much for posting it. I haven't got time to write very much more, right now, but I wanted to say I just noticed how much older you are than me, and it made me smile! What is it like to have lived for so long? I once spoke to an elderly man who remembers what it was like before there were telephone poles and wires everywhere. He said that when he thinks back on it, it really does make a difference in the view, and things were better without the poles and wires. He said that things feel more closed in, now.

Now, sometimes I think about it myself, even though I don't remember the world without them, and to me they look sort of like a sky-cage.