Unit of Psychopathology, Department of Personality and Clinical Psychology, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
Asociación Nuevo Horizonte, 28231, Las Rozas, Madrid, Spain.
J Autism Dev Disord. 2019 Jan;49(1):270-278. doi: 10.1007/s10803-018-3765-9.
Research on pain in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is in its infancy, with almost nothing known about how individual differences may predicting pain response in ASD. In the present study, 45 adults (28 male, age 22-48 years) with diagnoses of autism and intellectual delay were observed during vaccination or dental cleaning and their pain behaviours coded and measures of autism symptom severity, anxiety, depression and obsessivity taken. Our findings showed that greater autism severity predicted greater pain response which was partially mediated by anxiety and depression. These data suggest that mental health symptoms are important when considering pain response in autism. Mood must therefore be considered in future research on pain in ASD as well as clinical pain management.
自闭症谱系障碍（ASD）疼痛研究仍处于起步阶段，几乎不了解个体差异如何预测 ASD 中的疼痛反应。在本研究中，观察了 45 名被诊断为自闭症和智力障碍的成年人（28 名男性，年龄 22-48 岁）在接种疫苗或进行牙科清洁时的疼痛行为，并对其进行了编码，同时还测量了自闭症症状严重程度、焦虑、抑郁和强迫症的严重程度。我们的研究结果表明，自闭症严重程度越高，疼痛反应越大，而焦虑和抑郁则部分介导了这一关系。这些数据表明，在考虑自闭症的疼痛反应时，心理健康症状很重要。因此，在未来的 ASD 疼痛研究以及临床疼痛管理中，必须考虑情绪。
