Long-term temperature-related morbidity after brain damage: Survivor-reported experiences

Abstract

Primary objective: To determine whether temperature-related symptoms exist, long-term, in survivors of brain damage.

Research design: Scoping exercise.

Methods and procedures: A ‘call for information’, posted in the quarterly News bulletins of two major UK brain injury support groups, about any current or past temperature-related symptoms or problems that had developed since onset of brain damage.

Main outcomes and results: Narratives from 41 survivors revealed the nature of temperature-related morbidity, ongoing, on average, for 8 years since brain damage. Twenty-five survivors reported problems specifically related to feelings of extreme heat; in a further eight, heat-related problems occurred with bouts of ‘cold’. Feelings of extreme cold only were less common (n= 8). In 20 survivors, temperature problems had adverse effects on health and personal and social relationships.

Conclusions: To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first account of temperature-related problems in the form of narratives from survivors of a variety of brain injuries. The origin of abnormal somatic sensibility to temperature is currently unclear. It is plausible that the symptoms could be a ‘variant’ of the ‘pain-thermoregulatory distress axis’ well described after human stroke. In the meantime, apparently abnormal sensory and physical symptoms experienced by the survivors lack both explanation and remedy.

• MeSH terms
• temperature
• brain damage
• central post-stroke pain
• thermoregulation
• somatosensory