One Man's Pain......

Laura Mackie

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......Is another man's pleasure. Well at least as far as Jeffrey Mogil of the University of Illinois is concerned. More accurately, with the results of 62 different studies behind him, Mogil says that scientists now know that people really do feel pain differently when confronted by the same stimulus.

The answer, it appears, can be found in the human genome. The search goes on within the scientific community to locate the actual gene which may be manipulated to effectively reduce or eliminate chronic pain. Mogil's studies, using mice as subjects, have also determined that a relationship exists between initial sensitivity to pain and subsequent response to different drugs. These same studies also confirm what many within the scientific community have suspected all along, that reactions to pain are somewhat gender specific. The genes involved in feeling pain are different in males and females. "In addition to these apparent differences in magnitude, there appears to be fundamental neurochemical and genetic differences," said Mogil. "Both feel pain, but they are responding differently, by activating different circuitry in the brain."

As with most medical studies the long term application of these findings has yet to be determined. However, for those litigators whose clients have been diagnosed with chronic pain, these findings certainly add validity to settlement demands based on pain and suffering.