Pain assessment in autism: updating the ethical and methodological challenges through a state-of-the-art review

Abstract

Sensory features of autism include hypo- or hyper-reactivity to pain; however, previous studies on pain in autism lead to conflicting results. Here, we present the state of the art and the methodological challenges concerning pain perception in autism, focusing on studies that used standardized protocol as Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST) to measure perception. Despite there are still scant evidences found with the use of QST, they have challenged the presumed hyposensitivity to pain in autisms, which emerged from parents' reports. Both, peripheral and central mechanisms, have been found involved in typical features of perception in autism. Nonetheless, evidences with controlled protocols are still scarce, and even scarcer are studies focused on children. Overall, complex ethical challenges have to be overcome in order to collect subjective and objective measures from autistic children. With heterogeneous neurodevelopmental features, or intellectual disability, novel or modified protocols are needed.

Keywords: Autism; Neurodevelopment; Pain; Quantitative Sensory Testing (QST); Sensory processing.