Surprisingly, about a million people around the world cannot feel pain. Fractures, burns, cuts remain unnoticed for these people for a long time. In addition, infectious and inflammatory diseases are also often neglected due to their late detection. Consider the essence of pain insensitivity, its causes and treatment.
The essence of the phenomenon
Pain is an unpleasant sensation that occurs as a result of harm to the human body. It serves as a threat signal, a natural response mechanism to external and internal stimuli. Thanks to her, a person understands that he is in danger, and does everything possible to stop the influence of destructive factors on the body.
The feeling of pain occurs when irritants act on the nerve endings that transmit a signal to the brain. With insensitivity to pain at the stage of signal transmission through the nerves, a failure occurs. Because of this, a person does not feelimpact on the body of harmful and destructive factors, he is not able to recognize the threat to he alth in time. This condition can be life-threatening.
What is insensitivity to pain called? Analgesia is a partial or complete loss of sensation. A person may not feel pain in certain parts of the body, he may feel it weakly or not at all. The effect may be temporary or permanent.
Studying this disease can help develop the most effective and safe pain medications.
Reasons
A person may stop feeling pain for the following reasons:
- due to diseases affecting the central nervous system, the perception of pain in certain localized areas of the body may be disturbed;
- injuries and diseases of the musculoskeletal system: fracture and displacement of the spine, osteochondrosis, intervertebral hernia;
- severe stress can cause temporary, partial or complete loss of sensitivity to pain;
- congenital pathology.
Congenital insensitivity to pain
Scientists have found that the innate inability to feel pain is the result of a gene mutation. As a result of the research, it was found that most often this effect is a consequence of the mutation of the SCN9A and PRDM12 genes. In addition, their blocking deprives people of the ability to distinguish smells. The ZFHX2 gene mutation was found in an entire family of six people. It controls the work of 16 other genes,some of which are responsible for human perception of pain.
It turned out that congenital insensitivity to pain is inherited. The largest concentration of people with this disease was found in a village in northern Sweden. There are 60 people living there at once who do not feel pain.
Pros and cons of this phenomenon
There are few advantages to pain insensitivity, but they are still there. A large number of surgical interventions are performed using local or general anesthesia, which often does not have the best effect on a person. People who do not feel pain do not need either anesthesia or pain medication.
Such people can not be afraid of pain shock, which may well lead to death. In the event of injury, they have better control of their own body and are able to leave the danger zone, even though they are seriously injured.
Pain insensitivity paves the way for demonstrating the unusual abilities of your body to others, which can bring fame and money.
The main disadvantage is the inability of a person to understand that his body is under the influence of harmful or destructive factors. Such people are more likely than others to get fractures and injuries, they are able to bite off the tip of their tongue and not feel it. They can also cause unconscious harm to themselves. This disease is especially dangerous for young children who are not yet able to recognize the danger.
People who do not feel pain do not seek medical help on time, and therefore their illnessesmay have serious complications.
Treatment
In the treatment of acquired insensitivity to pain, it is first of all worth diagnosing the cause of this deviation. In case of stress, it is necessary to consult a psychotherapist. For the treatment of nervous abnormalities, it is necessary to get an appointment with a neurologist. After determining the exact cause of the disease, the doctor will prescribe the appropriate treatment.
The situation is more complicated with congenital insensitivity to pain. While doctors are looking for a solution to this problem. Sometimes patients are prescribed Naloxone and other opioid antagonists, but they are not always effective.
Thus, insensitivity to pain is a disease that can lead to sad consequences. A person with this pathology is not able to timely and adequately perceive the danger hanging over his he alth. Therefore, in the event of such a deviation, it is necessary to consult a doctor as soon as possible.
