Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics of Pain Treatment

This chapter reviews the impact of genetic variability of drug-metabolizing enzymes, transporters, receptors, and pathways involved in pain perception on the efficacy and safety of opioid analgesics and other drugs used for acute and chronic pain treatment. Several candidate genes have been identified in the literature, while there is still only limited clinical evidence substantiating the role of genotype testing for these candidate biomarkers in the clinical practice. Further, the pain-perception regulation and modulation are still not fully understood, and thus more detailed knowledge of genetic background for analgesia will be needed prior to the clinical use of the candidate genetic biomarkers.