In a world of chronic pain, individual treatment possible

An investigation into the molecular causes of a debilitating condition known as “Man on Fire Syndrome” has led Yale researchers to develop a strategy that may lead to personalized pain therapy and predict which chronic pain patients will respond to treatment.

More than a quarter of Americans suffer from chronic pain and nearly 40 percent do not get effective relief from existing drugs. In many common conditions such as diabetic neuropathy, no clear source of pain is found.

The new study published in the Nov. 13 issue of Nature Communications used sophisticated atomic modeling techniques to search for mutations found in a rare, agonizing, and previously untreatable form of chronic pain called erythromelagia, commonly referred to as “Man on Fire Syndrome.” Researchers discovered that one of those mutations seem to predicted whether a patient would respond positively to drug treatment.

“Hopefully we can use this knowledge to help chronic pain patients in more systematic ways, and not depend upon trial and error,” said Yang Yang, postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Neurology and lead author of the paper.