Had a pateint with severe pains out of proportion to what one would expect. He has a couple of pain conditions that ran in family and I felt probably had pain genes that augmented the condition. Insurers treated him with complete disdain because of their ignorance. COMT genes have inconsistently showed hypersensitivity to pain stimuli. In order to get consistent results, the pain system had to be repeatedly stimulated – and then results were obvious. I guess I can add one stimulation studies to my “one – injection shot MORON studies” [expecting one shot to cure or control a pain condition] list.
PLoS One. 2011;6(11):e27764. Epub 2011 Nov 21.
The Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) valmet Polymorphism Affects Brain Responses to Repeated Painful Stimuli.
Loggia ML, Jensen K, Gollub RL, Wasan AD, Edwards RR, Kong J. abstract here free article here
Val/Val gene type is hardy; Met/Met is pain sensitive and Val/Met is so-so. Example of brain area stimulation by type:
An example of how one versus repeated stimulation can effect sites is here –
one stim is to left; repeated on right
Comment – It took repeated stimulation to show extra-sensitivity (like wind-up). Studies that do not do repeated stimulation will miss this sensitivity so this one was well done. There are other studies that miss significant data but I will have to do a better job of explaining that then I did on my first draft (had complaint -Thank you.)