Translating Genetic Knowledge into Clinical Practice for Musculoskeletal Pain Conditions

Book Section

This chapter focuses on the genetic factors that contribute to chronic low back pain (LBP), chronic widespread pain (CWP), fibromyalgia (FM), and painful temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD), which collectively represent a set of pain conditions that are highly comorbid and common in the population. The epidemiology of LBP, CWP, FM, and TMD has been fairly well characterized in the general population and Slade and coworkers. The relative importance of genetic factors in human musculoskeletal pain conditions is becoming clearer with reported heritability that is comparable to other common disorders. Although whole-genome association studies (GWAS) are on the horizon for the pain field, at present only genetic association studies using a candidate gene approach have been reported. The power of translating results from human and animal genetic studies is in the ability to identify general molecular pathways contributing to pain processes and thus enabling the discovery of new specific drug targets.

Full Text

Duke Authors

Cited Authors

  • Diatchenko, L; Smith, SB; Maixner, W

Published Date

  • November 25, 2013

Book Title

  • Pain Genetics: Basic to Translational Science

Start / End Page

  • 147 - 159

International Standard Book Number 13 (ISBN-13)

  • 9781118398845

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1002/9781118398890.ch10

Citation Source

  • Scopus