car accident – NIH Director's Blog (original) (raw)

Researchers Elucidate Role of Stress Gene in Chronic Pain

Posted on September 4th, 2018 by Dr. Francis Collins

Credit: Getty Images/simonkr

For most people, pain eventually fades away as an injury heals. But for others, the pain persists beyond the initial healing and becomes chronic, hanging on for weeks, months, or even years. Now, we may have uncovered an answer to help explain why: subtle differences in a gene that controls how the body responds to stress.

In a recent study of more than 1,600 people injured in traffic accidents, researchers discovered that individuals with a certain variant in a stress-controlling gene, called FKBP5, were more likely to develop chronic pain than those with other variants [1]. These findings may point to new non-addictive strategies for preventing or controlling chronic pain, and underscore the importance of NIH-funded research for tackling our nation’s opioid overuse crisis.

Posted In: News

Tags: Acute Pain, car accident, Chronic Pain, cortisol, FKBP5, gene variants, genomics, HEAL, HEAL Initiative, mi-320a, MicroRNA, non-addictive medications, opiates, opioid addiction, opioid crisis, opioids, pain, pain management, Project CRASH, stress, trauma