PAIN SENSITIVITY IN RECOVERED ANOREXICS, RESTRAINED AND UNRESTRAINED EATERS

The heat pain threshold and local skin temperature were assessed in 23 former anorexic inpatients with an 'intermediate' (N = 9) or 'good' o utcome (N = 14) and in 21 restrained and 20 unrestrained eaters. All s ubjects were female. The group means of the pain thresholds did not di ffer significantly from each other, suggesting that the homogeneous in crease in pain thresholds we had previously observed in acutely ill ea ting disorder patients is state dependent. However, a sizeable percent age of the restrained eaters (29%) had pain thresholds clearly above t he normal range. Thus it may well be that restrained eating carries a risk of reducing pain sensitivity. Pain threshold and skin temperature correlated significantly (r = -0.63) only in the group of patients wi th an intermediate outcome, a finding resembling that obtained in acut e anorexics. This suggests that peripheral thermoregulation and pain s ensitivity are linked in the acute and moderately improved phases of a norexia nervosa.