Pain sensitivity has genetic basis

Researchers at Johns Hopkins and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) report that much human sensitivity to pain - and the varied response people have to opiate pain medicine - has a genetic basis. It seems that many of the differences in pain perception are likely to be due to variations in a single gene. Reporting in the July issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers explain why a gene coding for the mu opiate receptor, a molecule that bonds with the body's natural opiates, is the probable gene for pain sensitivity. The work should eventually result in pain drugs tailored to a person's individual genetic sensitivities - the kind of genome-based therapy that could represent the future of medicine.