Who is vulnerable to CRPS?

There definitely seems to be a particular type of person who gets CRPS (RSD). Classically the person is aged 40-60, but  on the KNEEguru bulletin board we seem to have frequently had CRPS patients who are -

• young (adolescent)
• very anxious themselves
• with very anxious parents

The intractable unrelenting type of pain that is typical of early CRPS, together with burning and hypersensitive skin, often leaves the patient very defensive, reluctant to move the limb and increasingly dependent upon crutches. If an adolescent, the parents often show a pattern of trying to encourage the patient that nothing is wrong while at the same time taking the patient from doctor to doctor. If the condition is not recongised, the family's anxiety becomes compounded by frustration. Insurance money frequently runs out, and this makes the distress worse.