Quantitative Sensory Testing to Study Pain Perception in Autism
This study aims at assess sensory perception, and pain perception, in neurodivergent children and adolescent in the autism spectrum. To achieve this goal, the quantitive sensory testing (QST), a controlled and replicable protocol, will be used, to assess perception in different sensory modalities: heat sensations, mech
| Condition(s) | Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Pain Perception |
|---|---|
| Status | Recruiting |
| Study type | Observational |
| Summary | This study aims at assess sensory perception, and pain perception, in neurodivergent children and adolescent in the autism spectrum. To achieve this goal, the quantitive sensory testing (QST), a controlled and replicable protocol, will be used, to assess perception in different sensory modalities: heat sensations, mechanical detection threshold and pain threshold. As secondary aim, the cortical processing of thermal painful stimuli will be collected through electroencephalography (EEG) in order to investigate if there are differences in the cortical processing of painful stimuli between clinical sample and control sample, and if it could be associated with differences in the subjective experience between the two groups. Finally, it will be explored the association between such differences, |
| Who can participate | Inclusion Criteria for the clinical sample: * Children and adolescent * age between 5 and 17 years old * Autism diagnosis according to DSM-V criteria Inclusion Criteria for the control sample: * healthy children and adolescent (without neurological, and psychiatric, diagnoses) * age between 5 and 17 years old Exclusion Criteria: Comorbidities with (for the clinical sample) or diagnosis of (for the control sample): * peripheral neuropaties; * psychiatric diagnosis as psychosis, * Tourette Syndrome, * neurological diagnoses as epilepsy, * sensory deficit or loss; * genetic diseases |
| Ages | 5 Years to 17 Years |
| Sex | All |
| Accepts healthy volunteers | Yes |
| Lead sponsor | IRCCS Eugenio Medea |
| Locations | Brindisi, BR, Italy |
| Start date | 2024-07-17 |
| NCT ID | NCT06659731 |
| Official listing | https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT06659731 |