Objective evaluation of pain perception in patients with schizophrenia.

The pain thresholds of patients with schizophrenia often seem to differ from those of healthy subjects. In the present study we assessed the pain thresholds of ten patients with schizophrenia, and of ten controls, by measuring the leg flexion nociceptive reflex threshold: the stimulation threshold at which this reflex is triggered, is known to be correlated with the pain threshold. Our conclusion is that, in most cases, the increase in pain threshold is the result of 'attitude' and not of alterations in brain function.