Congenital Insensitivity to Pain

Congenital insensitivity to pain, also called congenital analgesia, is the inability to feel physical pain from birth, caused by any of several rare genetic mutations that disrupt the nociceptors, the sensory nerve cells that normally detect tissue damage. People with the condition usually have normal intelligence and other senses, though some also have reduced ability to sense temperature or to sweat, and the different genetic forms are grouped as hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathies types one through five. Because pain no longer serves as a warning signal, affected individuals are prone to repeated injuries such as bone fractures, damage to the mouth or fingertips, and corneal or ear infections that go unnoticed and untreated, and there is no agreed medical treatment beyond careful injury prevention and management; life expectancy is shorter than average. The condition is extremely rare, estimated at about one case per million people, though a cluster of nearly forty cases has been documented in the Swedish village of Vittangi.