Reversible Central Pain

"Central pain" has been defined as spontaneous pain with painful over-reaction to external stimuli resulting from lesions confined to the central nervous system.¹²As Walker¹⁵pointed out, central pain can originate from any level of the nervous system—peripheral, spinal, bulbar, or cortical. The pain discussed in this report is of the type commonly known as the "thalamic syndrome," since in the majority of such cases with proved origin the lesions were in the thalamus. It is well to keep in mind the excellent summation of Noordenbos¹⁰: "The pain which accompanies such a lesion of the nervous system itself, thiscentral pain, is not due to the lesion. The lesion has only created conditions whereby this mechanism can take place. The pain arises as the result of nervous impulses generated elsewhere." Thalamic Syndrome The thalamic syndrome was described by Dejerine and Roussy⁴in 1906, and further elaborated