Genetic contributions to clinical pain and analgesia: avoiding pitfalls in genetic research.
Understanding the genetic basis of human variations in pain is critical to elucidating the molecular basis of pain sensitivity, variable responses to analgesic drugs, and, ultimately, to individualized treatment of pain and improved public health. With the help of recently accumulated knowledge and advanced technologies, pain researchers hope to gain insight into genetic mechanisms of pain and eventually apply this knowledge to pain treatment.


CONCLUSIONS
We critically reviewed the published literature to examine the strength of evidence supporting genetic influences on clinical and human experimental pain. Based on this evidence and the experience of false associations that have occurred in other related disciplines, we provide recommendations for avoiding pitfalls in pain genetic research.
Kim
Hyungsuk
H
National Institute of Nursing Research, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
Clark
David
D
Dionne
Raymond A
RA
D000698:Analgesia; D000818:Animals; D005006:Ethnicity / Q000235:genetics; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D014644:Genetic Variation; D055106:Genome-Wide Association Study; D005838:Genotype; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D010146:Pain / Q000235:genetics*; D010641:Phenotype; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D044469:Racial Groups / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA