Congenital insensitivity to pain is a rare disorder where people cannot feel pain, which can lead to serious injuries and illnesses. Pain serves as a protective mechanism to prevent harm, and without it, people may not seek medical help and suffer from undetected illnesses.
The purpose of pain is to protect us from harming ourselves. When a person places their hand on a hot burner, their first response is usually to pull that hand away. People with congenital insensitivity to pain do not feel pain. This means that a person with the disorder cannot remove his hand from a hot stove because he does not feel the pain of the burning hand. This can lead to serious problems.
While completely unpleasant, pain is meant to teach us to stay away from dangerous objects or situations. Pain can also be an indicator of a bigger problem in our body, such as cancer or a broken bone. A person with congenital insensitivity to pain has never felt pain and never will. He may spend his whole life hurting himself and may never even know it. Medical treatment for people with congenital insensitivity to pain can be challenging as many times doctors make diagnoses partially depending on the location and severity of the pain.
Congenital insensitivity to pain is a disorder that affects the part of the body that controls the reception of pain. Nerves that sense pain cannot translate that information to the brain, and therefore the person does not feel even the slightest discomfort. This condition is congenital, meaning it is present at birth. Thus, a child with congenital insensitivity to pain may be seriously injured, but will appear to be a happy child.
A child with this condition is in extreme danger. If we bite our tongue, for example, we stop biting it because it hurts. A child with congenital insensitivity to pain won’t stop because he doesn’t know he’s hurting himself. Such a child may play with the stove, pull his hair out, electrocute himself or play too rough and hurt himself because there is no negative stimulus to tell him to stop. This can lead to serious problems and devastating injuries.
Another form of congenital pain numbness is called congenital pain numbness with anhidrosis. It is characterized by a person who is unable to feel pain or extreme temperatures and is unable to sweat. Such a person may not know that they are too hot or too cold. Also, without being able to sweat, a person cannot regulate his or her body temperature properly. No sweat means the body is unable to cool itself properly and the person may overheat.
Although congenital insensitivity to pain is rare, it is serious. Usually, people with the disorder do not live past the age of 25. Without the ability to feel pain, people can break bones, get burned, or contract serious illnesses without ever knowing that something is wrong with their body. Therefore, they may develop serious infections or illnesses that could have been avoided if they had sought medical help sooner.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
