Autism and pain - a literature review Dubois, Amandine; Rattaz, Cécile; Pry, René ...
Pain research & management,
07/2010, Letnik:
15, Številka:
4
Journal Article
People with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are likely to experience pain in a large variety of contexts because of challenging behaviors, medical comorbidities or life conditions. The assessment and ...treatment of pain in people with ASD is for those reasons a major issue. In this chapter, studies regarding pain expression in people with ASD are reviewed. The results yield possible alterations of pain experience at several levels, namely the neurochemical, sensory and cognitive components of pain. Moreover, because of socio‐communicative deficits, pain assessment is particularly challenging in this population and there is no specific assessment tool (self or proxy‐report) for people with ASD at the moment. Studies also show that in this population and more generally in people with developmental disabilities, pain alleviation or management is still insufficient in current health care practice. The authors conclude that there is an urgent need to improve pain assessment and management in people with ASD, and to develop and adapt individualised tools and techniques in order to reduce anxiety and prevent challenging behaviors during painful medical procedures.
