Genetics and Pain Sensetivity

Genetics, life experiences may play role in pain sensitivity.
In the USA Today (3/29) Your Health column, Kim Painter discusses increasing evidence suggesting that people "are born with different vulnerabilities to pain -- and that early painful experiences and other matters shape us in ways that can profoundly affect our responses." For example, "British researchers tested people with osteoarthritis and other painful conditions and found that those with one form of a gene called SCN9A reported worse pain than those with another version." Life experiences may also play a role in pain sensitivity. For example, "heightened pain responses also are seen in people with a family history of substance abuse and those who have been abused physically, sexually, or emotionally, says" psychiatrist Michael Moskowitz, MD.
TRPA1 molecule may hold key to pain perception. The Boston Globe (3/29, Johnson) reports, "the ability to detect noxious compounds comes from a biological pathway older than our sense of smell, emerging far in the evolutionary past, about half a billion years ago," according to research published in this month's journal Nature. Researchers from Brandeis University say that "a molecule called TRPA1" appears to respond "to chemicals that can damage tissue." Now, "because the sensor plays a role in pain perception, scientists are interested in seeing if there is a way to act on it to dampen pain."