Gene Variation Affects Pain Sensitivity and Risk of Chronic Pain: Finding May Lead to New TreatmentsSunday, Oct 22, 2006
A new NIH-funded study shows that a specific gene variant in humans affects both sensitivity to short-term (acute) pain in
healthy volunteers and the risk of developing chronic pain after one kind of back surgery. Blocking increased activity of
this gene after nerve injury or inflammation in animals prevented development of chronic pain.
Peptides Implicated in Body's Response to PainWednesday, Mar 25, 1998
Pain is an extremely disabling condition leading to an annual cost of $65 billion lost in work productivity and 4 billion
work days. It also accounts for 40 million visits per year to physicians for "new" pain and $3 billion in sales each year
of over-the-counter analgesics. Scientists studying animal models with support from the National Institutes of Health have
found that a chemical, called neurokinin A, may be responsible for the body's response to moderate-to-intense pain. This finding,
reported in the March 26, 1998, issue of Nature, may eventually lead to new treatments for pain.
NINDS Researchers Conduct TSP Prevalence Study in JamaicaMonday, May 16, 1994
Aurora K. Pajeau, M.D.,M.P.H., a clinical associate in the Neuroepidemiology Branch of the National Institute of Neurological
Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) will present preliminary findings from the first door-to-door prevalence study of tropical spastic
paraparesis (TSP) associated with HTLV-I in Jamaica at the 6th International Conference on Human Retrovirology: HTLV.