Duval Céline Z, Goumon Yannick, Kemmel Véronique, Kornmeier Jürgen, Dufour André, Andlauer Olivier, Vidailhet Pierre, Poisbeau Pierrick, Salvat Eric, Muller André, Mensah-Nyagan Ayikoé G, Schmidt-Mutter Catherine, Giersch Anne
INSERM U-1114, Fédération de Médecine Translationnelle de Strasbourg (FMTS), Département de Psychiatrie, Hôpitaux Universitaires de Strasbourg; 1, place de l'Hôpital, 67000 Strasbourg, France.
Fondation FondaMental, Créteil, France.
Sci Rep. 2016 Mar 3;6:22542. doi: 10.1038/srep22542.
Patients with schizophrenia have often been described as insensitive to nociceptive signals, but objective evidence is sparse. We address this question by combining subjective behavioral and objective neurochemical and neurophysiological measures. The present study involved 21 stabilized and mildly symptomatic patients with schizophrenia and 21 control subjects. We applied electrical stimulations below the pain threshold and assessed sensations of pain and unpleasantness with rating scales, and Somatosensory Evoked Potentials (SEPs/EEG). We also measured attention, two neurochemical stress indices (ACTH/cortisol), and subjective VEPs/EEG responses to visual emotional stimuli. Our results revealed that, subjectively, patients' evaluations do not differ from controls. However, the amplitude of EEG evoked potentials was greater in patients than controls as early as 50 ms after electrical stimulations and beyond one second after visual processing of emotional pictures. Such responses could not be linked to the stress induced by the stimulations, since stress hormone levels were stable. Nor was there a difference between patients and controls in respect of attention performance and tactile sensitivity. Taken together, all indices measured in patients in our study were either heightened or equivalent relative to healthy volunteers.
精神分裂症患者常被描述为对伤害性信号不敏感，但客观证据稀少。我们通过结合主观行为以及客观神经化学和神经生理学测量方法来解决这个问题。本研究纳入了21名病情稳定且症状较轻的精神分裂症患者和21名对照受试者。我们在疼痛阈值以下施加电刺激，并使用评分量表以及体感诱发电位（SEPs/EEG）评估疼痛和不适感。我们还测量了注意力、两个神经化学应激指标（促肾上腺皮质激素/皮质醇）以及对视觉情绪刺激的主观视觉诱发电位/脑电图反应。我们的结果显示，在主观上，患者的评估与对照组并无差异。然而，早在电刺激后50毫秒以及对情绪图片进行视觉处理一秒之后，患者脑电图诱发电位的幅度就比对照组更大。由于应激激素水平稳定，这种反应与刺激引起的应激并无关联。在注意力表现和触觉敏感性方面，患者与对照组之间也没有差异。总体而言，我们研究中测量的患者所有指标相对于健康志愿者要么升高要么相当。
