Self-Harm History Increases Pain Sensation

Teenagers who harm themselves for more than 5 times in their life are more sensitive to pain compared to adolescents who have not, according to new research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, in collaboration with Glasgow University.

The study published in JAMA Network Open about the relationship between self-harm and bodily sensation reported that the threshold for both painful and not painful sensation increased in participants who had self-harmed in the past.

‘Pain threshold measurement can be used as a suicide predictor in teenagers with history of self-harm.’

64 participants aged between 12-17 were recruited from a mixture of community and residential care settings, as well as schools and youth groups in London and Glasgow.

Each individual underwent a series of 13 tests, including thermal detection and pain thresholds, and pressure pain thresholds to detect at which point the sensation change or the pain began to feel first.

The participants are not asked to endure the pain and instructed to stop the test the moment they felt any sign of discomfort.

Suicide is the second highest cause of death among teenagers, and self-harm is the strongest predictor of suicide. The investigators believe this clinical potential can be an effective test for identifying youths at the highest risk.

Dr Dennis Ougrin, the study's Co-Lead author from King's IoPPN, said "Rates of self-harm and suicide in children and adolescents have been rising in the UK, and we most commonly see the first episodes of self-harm take place around the age of 12.

From the studies conducted they concluded that teenagers who have history of self-harm for five or more times in the past have a higher pain threshold.

The investigators hope that these findings can be converted into a simple test using a pressure sensor to effectively identify individuals at risk and so they can be provided with targeted support.

Still, it's difficult to conclude pain hyposensitivity as a pre-existing risk factor for self-harm. These findings show that teenagers in care have sensory abnormalities whether or not they have self-harmed, is striking and will need further investigation.



Source: Medindia