[Disorders of pain perception in schizophrenia]

Starting from a case of marked pain insensitivity in a patient suffering from catatonic schizophrenia we state in this paper that analgesia seems to be an ubiquitous phenomenon which is not only caused by physical disorders of the central nervous system. Different models of interpretation as to be found in scientific literature are reviewed. On the basis of today's physiological knowledge, five hypotheses on causal explanation of pain insensitivity in schizophrenics are discussed: Hypalgesia and analgesia are an expression of motorial inability to react; a consequence of a disorder of consciousness; an analgetic effect of neuroleptic drugs; a basic deficit in schizophrenia and; a result of a disturbed psycho-physiological development.