I've never known anybody whose RSD "burned out." However, I know many, many people who were treated and went into remission. The doctors and experts I have seen all agreed that RSD does not just go away on its own, it requires treatment to do so.

I'm sorry, but I have to believe that even if the RSD did just go away one day without treatment, it would leave behind it quite a path of destruction. Even with years of physical therapy, when my pain and vasomotor/sudomotor changes finally went into remission, it left behind damaged blood vessels, muscles, joints and bone. Imagine if a person had gone through no treatment and therapy and just waited for the RSD to magically disappear someday! No matter if the pain "burned itself out," the physical result would be absolutely devastating.

I do realize that nobody is advocating for a lack of treatment...the paragraph above is just an example of the dangers of this belief. If, for instance, a doctor believed that RSD necessitated no treatment and would go away on its own, that could be a very dangerous assumption.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that it hardly matters whether RSD goes away on its own...it needs to be treated regardless of whether or not it burns itself out.

-Betsy