Behaviour and Expression of Pain in Autism Spectrum Disorders
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Behaviour and Expression of Pain in Autism Spectrum Disorders
IRAS ID
219408
Contact name
David Moore
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Liverpool John Moores University
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 8 months, 13 days
Research summary
One explanation for altered pain in autism is derived from a socio-communicative perspective; pain is highly social, requiring social interaction, social communication, verbal and non-verbal behaviour, all of which are key deficits in autism, therefore it is likely that it is the expression that is altered. Measuring non-verbal expressions of emotion such as facial expressions provide a more objective way to measure pain with a reduction in the likelihood of a misrepresentation of the pain experience as they are less amenable to conscious distortion than that of self-reports and subjective states.
We would like to therefore invite adults with ASD and healthy age and gender matched controls, who are undergoing a routine cannula insertion as part of their routine dental treatment at the Liverpool University Dental Hospital, to have their cannula insertion videoed. This will allow us to examine expressions during a general procedure that might be potentially painful. This will allow us to determine if individuals with ASD express pain in a typical way, or rather if there is a set of ASD specific expression of pain.REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/NE/0054
Date of REC Opinion
6 Apr 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Unfavourable Opinion