(Slate) – They had a mysterious, sometimes debilitating condition. At special “boot camps,” they were promised a cure. They experienced something much different.

Sherry began using the term AMPS in the early 2000s while working at a children’s hospital in Seattle. There, he met patients—usually girls—who experienced intense pain with the slightest touch. The nervous system usually creates pain in response to injury, not the brush of a hand. He theorized that in these patients, this system was firing abnormally, causing excruciating pain in the absence of any physical damage or even much physical input at all.

The kind of therapy he developed is perhaps best described as “Spartan,” and is in place at CHOP and other hospitals today. At these boot camps, kids with AMPS undertake a routine of intense physical exercise—up to five hours of running, swimming, and strength drills daily. When they’re not exercising, they go through desensitization therapy, a therapeutic technique in which kids are purposely exposed to sensory inputs that their nervous systems will perceive as excruciating, even though they’re innocuous—like harsh rubbing with towels or having their limbs dunked in ice. (Read More)