Congenital insensitivity to pain and
Most humans can feel pain, but not all humans, he said. Because of genetics or nerve injury, some people can't feel pain. Imagine touching a hot pan and not realizing it just came out of the oven. Or imagine if you broke your leg, but didn't know it.
CIPA is characterized by loss of pain and thermal sensation accompanied by mental distress. Other sensory modalities such as touch, pressure, and vibration are not affected.
About one in a million people are thought to be born without a sense of pain, which results in severe self-inflicted injuries from an early age and can lead to premature death.
CIP is often diagnosed in early childhood due to a lack of typical pain response (wincing or crying) during standard medical procedures like vaccination and treatment for common childhood injuries like falls.
CIPA is extremely dangerous, and in most cases the patient doesn't live over age of 25.
There is no cure for CIPA and the treatment is mostly about staying safe. It's important to avoid injuries and monitor any wounds for infection. Support groups can be helpful for social support and tips for living with CIPA.
Since the abilities of CIPA patients to perceive taste and smell were not basically impaired, despite their lower sensitivity to capsaicin, it was suggested that their dietary habits were only minimally affected, except for intake of pungent foods.
Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA), also referred to as hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type IV, is a rare inherited autosomal recessive disease. The incidence of this disorder is about 1 in 125 million, with few cases reported worldwide to date [1].
Loss of sensory neurons leads to the inability to feel pain in people with CIPA. In addition, people with CIPA lose the nerves leading to their sweat glands , which causes the anhidrosis seen in affected individuals.
Signs and symptoms
Since people with this condition are unable to sweat, they are unable to properly regulate their body temperature. Those affected are unable to feel pain and temperature. The absence of pain experienced by people with CIPA puts them at high risk for accidental self-injury.
CIPA is a very rare disease; there are only around 60 documented cases in the United States and around 300 worldwide (3). Since it is a genetic disease, CIPA is more likely to occur in homogeneous societies. While there may be very few reported cases, many studies have been done on these individuals.
Studies have found that the female body has a more intense natural response to painful stimuli, indicating a difference between genders in the way pain systems function. A greater nerve density present in women may cause them to feel pain more intensely than men.
But the truth is, pain is constructed entirely in the brain. This doesn't mean your pain is any less real – it's just that your brain literally creates what your body feels, and in cases of chronic pain, your brain helps perpetuate it.
The link between pleasure and pain is deeply rooted in our biology. For a start, all pain causes the central nervous system to release endorphins – proteins which act to block pain and work in a similar way to opiates such as morphine to induce feelings of euphoria.
This suggests that there are parts of our genetic makeup that may contribute to an individual having a higher pain tolerance compared to others. One study found a mutation, or variant, in the DRD1 gene to be 33% more prevalent in individuals who perceived less pain than those who perceived high levels of pain.
Channelopathy-associated congenital insensitivity to pain is a condition that inhibits the ability to perceive physical pain. From birth, affected individuals never feel pain in any part of their body when injured.
Here are several factors that Grabois says can affect pain tolerance: Depression and anxiety can make a person more sensitive to pain. Athletes can withstand more pain than people who don't exercise. People who smoke or are obese report more pain.
Since the abilities of CIPA patients to perceive taste and smell were not basically impaired, despite their lower sensitivity to capsaicin, it was suggested that their dietary habits were only minimally affected, except for intake of pungent foods.
“Some people are naturally more tolerant of spice because of genetics. They are just born with fewer receptors for capsaicin, which gives them a built-in tolerance for heat.” For others, the way their body's pain receptors react to capsaicin changes over time.
Despite a lack of peripheral pain sensation, CIPA patients still respond to airway manipulation, and a certain depth of anesthesia is needed to reduce the hemodynamic response to endotracheal intubation (8).
Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis (CIPA) is a rare condition caused by mutation of the TrkA (NTRK1) gene on the 1q 21-22 chromosome,38 characterized by mental retardation; congenital analgesia that leads to self-mutilation, multiple scars, and fractures; and anhidrosis with repeated bouts of fever.
CIPA is a rare autosomal recessive genetic disease caused by certain gene mutations. CIPA, also known as hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy type IV, is a rare genetic condition [1,2]. Very few individuals are affected by this genetical disorder, but cases can be found worldwide.
Being unable to feel pain may sound appealing, but it would be extremely hazardous to your health. Pain is, for most of us, a very unpleasant feeling, but it serves the important evolutionary purpose of alerting us to potentially life-threatening injuries.