The Genetics of Pain - Literature review Example

Environmental factors such as attention, stress, and cultural attitudes also influence pain expression. A broad spectrum of pain sensitivity observed in patients is believed to influence clinical needs in pain management. A genetic influence in pain response is backed by the results of a study conducted in inbred mouse strains that responded differently to the same acute and chronic pain stimuli (Lynn & Webster, 2008).Recent studies have linked low back pain to genetic and chemical mechanisms.

This can be echoed by the study conducted on 840 Chinese volunteers. The findings indicated that “a polymorphism- the Trip2 allele COL9A2 coding for alpha2 chain of collagen IX- is associated with a fourfold increase in the risk of developing annular tear of people ages 30 to 39 years.” Migraine pain according to the study is linked to an X-Chromosome as it was more prevalent in females than in the male. The study also indicated that Fibromyalgia (FM) is more prevalent within families than in the general population.

A study conducted in Sweden showed that FM had significant co-occurrence with other functional somatic syndromes like chronic fatigue, depressive symptoms, joint pain, etc, which share many clinical features suggesting a shared mechanism of pain sensitivity (Lynn & Webster, 2008).The effects of polymorphic genes on the enzymes that metabolize drugs are well described by pharmacogenetics. Response to opioid medication has been found to vary among different ethnic groups. E.g. Caucasians are more prone to sedation and respiratory depression than Asians.

Given that a patient’s drug sensitivity is impacted by genetic variations, these can lead to adverse reactions, toxicity, or therapeutic failure. It can be concluded that each person carries a unique genetic imprint for pain response and medication sensitivity (Lynn & Webster, 2008).Charles & Argoff (2010) purports that differential responses among patients are common in many pharmacologic classes just as in opioid analgesics even though opioids are well known to evoke a wide variety of responses among individuals.