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Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy
What are the causes?
As with other chronic pain conditions CRPS is widely believed to be multifactoral in origin some of the factors which may contribute to the cause of the condition are:
Trauma
It is not unusual for an adolescent with a localised chronic pain to recall a sporting injury, operation or other trauma around the time that the chronic pain commenced. Whether or not this is causal is not clear. Excessive joint movement (hypermobility) has also been associated with falls and
subsequent pain problems. There may often be a period of enforced immobilisation; this may be an additional factor in the development of a chronic pain syndrome.
Psychosocial Factors
Although often tempting to cite psychosocial distress as a trigger to chronic pain in adolescents, the data is lacking. Undoubtedly the pain associated disability and impact on lifestyle that follows has an enormous effect on psychosocial wellbeing.
Genetics
There is some evidence that CRPS may have a genetic predisposition in Caucasian women, but the underlying genomics are far from clear. Most young people with CRPS have no other relative with the same condition.
Environmental
It has been reported that girls have lower pain thresholds, poor sleep patterns and a tendency to hypermobility when compared with boys. This may, in part, explain the greater number of females with pain conditions. With CRPS there is a small, but significant, number of boys who present.
Pathophysiological
Once more there is very little data on how body functions are related to the condition (pathophysiology) of childhood chronic pain. It has been widely postulated that, in childhood CRPS, there is either overactivity of the sympathetic nervous system or under-responsiveness of the alphaadrenergic pathways. This is unproven.
What are the symptoms?
| How is it diagnosed? 
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