Strange disease makes sufferers insensitive to pain

Patrice Abela was shocked to see that her eldest daughter had a bleeding accident, but she did not cry or show any pain.

Soon after, he took the child to the hospital. She was diagnosed with congenital insensitivity to pain. This is an extremely rare and dangerous genetic disorder, causing the sufferer to suffer for life. They can hurt themselves but not feel it.

Abela was horrified to see her youngest daughter suffering from the same disease as her sister. At the ages of 12 and 13, the girls are hospitalized for about three months a year.

"When they take a bath, they feel hot and cold. But if they get burned, they don't feel anything. Due to repeated infections, my eldest daughter lost the first joint of each finger. She also had to have surgery. toe amputation," he said.

Repeated knee injuries caused both girls to use crutches or wheelchairs. Abela said her son feels no physical pain, but often laments the intense "psychological pain" he has to endure.

Life without pain sounds like a dream come true to some, but in reality, it is a nightmare. Worldwide, scientists have only recorded a few thousand people with this disease. The number is so low in part because people often don't live to adulthood.

Didier Bouhassira, a doctor at the pain assessment and treatment center at Ambroise-Pare hospital in Paris, said: "Pain sensation plays an important physiological role in protecting us from dangers from environment".

Pain insensitivity causes many people to injure themselves without even realizing it.

According to him, in the most extreme cases, infants with this syndrome will "bite off their tongue or fingers when teething". Others have had many accidents such as burns, broken bones that cannot be healed due to walking on broken legs without anyone knowing.

"They need to be taught what is natural instinct in others, to protect themselves," he said.

When there is no pain as a warning, danger lurks everywhere. For example, appendicitis manifests in normal people through symptoms such as pain, fever. But for people with loss of sensation, it is easy to silently develop into a serious systemic infection.

"The disease can also cause blindness. Normally, the eyes need to be kept moist, and the nervous system controls this through the blinking reflex. People who have lost their sense of pain sometimes forget they need to do this. ", said Dr Ingo Kurth, German Institute of Human Genetics.

Congenital insensitivity to pain was first recognized in the 1930s. Since then, numerous studies have identified genetic mutations that block the human ability to feel pain.

"We know that there are more than 20 genetic factors that cause or lead to congenital apathy," said Dr. Kurth.

According to him, the disease has no cure. Scientists have not yet developed a drug to treat this condition.

"But our knowledge of the causes of the disease opens new doors. Based on these foundations, we hope to be able to offer therapy to patients in the coming years," he said. .

The medical community also hopes that studying how pain insensitivity works could pave the way for new pain relievers. This idea has received great attention from pharmaceutical giants who are looking for new products for the multi-billion dollar painkiller industry.