How do people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience pain?

Rattaz, Cécile; Dubois, Amandine; Baghdadli, Amaria

doi:10.1002/9781118455968.ch12

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 120 publications

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“…49,52 To prevent potential biased pain assessments and the mismanagement of pain, verbal, and nonverbal responses of children with ASD and proxy reports of related stakeholders (i.e., their observers such as parents, carers, and health care practitioners), may also decrease extreme behavioral responses to pain and contribute to better pain experiences. 53 Pediatric patients with and without disabilities often experience anxiety in health care settings. 54 Children with ASD-similar to children without disabilities-experience anxiety during medical procedures (i.e., venepuncture, 20,50 or due to previous negative pain experiences).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Holistic pain assessment can include assessing the social, psychological, spiritual, cultural, and physical pain by including all stakeholder perspectives (child, health care practitioner and caregiver) 49,52 . To prevent potential biased pain assessments and the mismanagement of pain, verbal, and nonverbal responses of children with ASD and proxy reports of related stakeholders (i.e., their observers such as parents, carers, and health care practitioners), may also decrease extreme behavioral responses to pain and contribute to better pain experiences 53 …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Pain communication in children with autism spectrum disorder: A scoping review

Johnson,

van Zijl,

Kuyler

2023

Paediatric and Neonatal Pain

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Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience social interaction and communication challenges and often display repetitive, restricted patterns of behavior, activities, and interests. The concept of pain is regarded as one of the most complex human stressors due to its subjective and personal nature and the influences of multiple internal and external factors. Due to the complexity of this disorder, it remains concerning how children with ASD communicate their pain and how observers (i.e., parents, carers, and health care practitioners) respond to these children's pain communication. This scoping review aimed to identify how children with ASD communicate or express their pain. Ten studies met the inclusion criteria for further data extraction. Through reflexive thematic analysis, two main themes were identified: verbal and nonverbal responses used by children with ASD to communicate their pain that could influence pain assessment and management strategies. This review highlighted that children with ASD utilized various verbal and nonverbal methods to communicate their pain experiences and that these methods differed compared to children without disabilities. Furthermore, this review emphasizes the importance of holistic pain assessment strategies as well as additional pictorial support for children with ASD. This review recommends that future research should focus on understanding how the inclusion of different stakeholders in pain assessment for children with ASD, can contribute to holistic pain assessment.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Pain communication in children with autism spectrum disorder: A scoping review

Johnson,

van Zijl,

Kuyler

2023

Paediatric and Neonatal Pain

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Pain Modulation Mechanisms in ASD Adults

Dubois

Boudjarane

Fur-Bonnabesse

et al. 2020

J Autism Dev Disord

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The Current View on the Paradox of Pain in Autism Spectrum Disorders

et al. 2022

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Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder, which affects 1 in 44 children and may cause severe disabilities. Besides socio-communicational difficulties and repetitive behaviors, ASD also presents as atypical sensorimotor function and pain reactivity. While chronic pain is a frequent co-morbidity in autism, pain management in this population is often insufficient because of difficulties in pain evaluation, worsening their prognosis and perhaps driving higher mortality rates. Previous observations have tended to oversimplify the experience of pain in autism as being insensitive to painful stimuli. Various findings in the past 15 years have challenged and complicated this dogma. However, a relatively small number of studies investigates the physiological correlates of pain reactivity in ASD. We explore the possibility that atypical pain perception in people with ASD is mediated by alterations in pain perception, transmission, expression and modulation, and through interactions between these processes. These complex interactions may account for the great variability and sometimes contradictory findings from the studies. A growing body of evidence is challenging the idea of alterations in pain processing in ASD due to a single factor, and calls for an integrative view. We propose a model of the pain cycle that includes the interplay between the molecular and neurophysiological pathways of pain processing and it conscious appraisal that may interfere with pain reactivity and coping in autism. The role of social factors in pain-induced response is also discussed. Pain assessment in clinical care is mostly based on subjective rather than objective measures. This review clarifies the strong need for a consistent methodology, and describes innovative tools to cope with the heterogeneity of pain expression in ASD, enabling individualized assessment. Multiple measures, including self-reporting, informant reporting, clinician-assessed, and purely physiological metrics may provide more consistent results. An integrative view on the regulation of the pain cycle offers a more robust framework to characterize the experience of pain in autism.

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How do people with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) experience pain?

Cited by 4 publications

References 120 publications

Pain communication in children with autism spectrum disorder: A scoping review

Pain communication in children with autism spectrum disorder: A scoping review

Pain Modulation Mechanisms in ASD Adults

The Current View on the Paradox of Pain in Autism Spectrum Disorders

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