Krieg, Jürgen-Christian

Lautenbacher, Stefan

Roscher, Stephan

Strian, Friedrich

OPUS - Publikationsserver der Universität Bamberg

Aug. 24, Tuesday 
Abstract 433 
HALL NEUILLY 
Poster 54 
PAIN INSENSITIVITY IN PSYCHIATRIC PATIENTS 
WITH DEPRESSION: ANOREXIA NERVOSA AND 
BULIMIA NERVOSA. S. Lautenbacher, S. Roscher, F. 
Strian, J.-C. Krieg, Max Planck Inst. of Psychiatry, 
Munich, Germany. 
Aim of Investigation: Psychiatrie patients can have 
clinically manifest changes in pain sensitivity. With the 
exception of studies on depression, experimental ap-
proaches to this issue have been rare. We conducted a 
series of studies that included both depressed patients 
and, for the first time, patients with eating disorders to 
find out whether they have any changes in pain sensitivi-
ty and if so, whether the changes are specific to pain and 
whether endogenous opioids are causally involved. 
Methods: Heat pain thresholds were measured in 
patients with major depression (n= 20), anorexia (n= 
19) and bulimia (n= 20) diagnosed according to 
DSM-III-R and compared to those of two age- and sex-
matched control groups. In addition, warmth, cold and 
vibration thresholds were assessed. In subsamples of n = 
10, naloxone (5 mg IV) was administered in a double-
blind placebo-controlled design. 
Results: Pain thresholds were significantly higher in 
all patient groups than in the respective control groups. 
Tbis was not the case for the warmth, cold and vibration 
thresbolds. Naloxone did not affect the pain thresholds in 
any group. 
Conclusions: The patients with the eating disorders 
anorexia and bulimia appeared to be pain-insensitive, as 
did those with major depression. The insensitivity was 
not part of a generalized somatosensory hypoaesthesia 
but was specific to pain. The hypalgesia was not caused 
by a naloxone-sensitive mechanism, a finding that prob-
ably excludes involvement of endogenous opioids. Find-
ings from our group, not reported here, and from others 
suggest that in all three disorders the hypalgesia is re-
stricted to the acute phase. Hence, pain insensitivity 
seems to be more common in acute psychiatric patients 
than previously thought, and not limited to depression 
and schizophrenia. 


Pain Insensitivity in Psychiatric Patients with Depression : Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa

https://opus4.kobv.de/opus4-bamberg/files/47482/PainOCR_A3a.pdf

Pain Insensitivity in Psychiatric Patients with Depression : Anorexia Nervosa and Bulimia Nervosa

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

OPUS - Publikationsserver der Universität Bamberg