Altered thermal sensitivity in facial skin in chronic whiplash-associated disorders

Abstract

Suffering a severe whiplash injury can alter the sensitivity of people’s faces to thermal stimuli, report researchers in Sweden. Birgitta Häggman-Henrikson and colleagues at Umeå University analyzed thermal detection thresholds in the facial skin of 20 women: ten experienced chronic pain and movement disorders as a result of a whiplash injury and ten served as healthy, age-matched controls. When asked for their perception of temperature, individuals in the whiplash-affected group reported both reduced and increased sensitivity compared to healthy participants. In contrast, a quantitative thermal test revealed that women with whiplash associated disorders displayed only reduced sensitivity for both warm and cold stimuli, even in those individuals who self-reported having increased sensitivity. The findings highlight how whiplash-related pain can lead to sensory disturbances, and underline the importance of using more objective measures to assess thermal responses.

Keywords

jaw / neck / quantitative sensory testing / thermal thresholds / trigeminal / whiplash injury

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