Scientists hail discovery of woman who feels no pain
Genetic mutation could open the way to develop treatments for chronic pain, PTSD and anxiety
A WOMAN who feels no pain or fear could open the door to new pain-relief and anxiety medications, after scientists discovered the genetic mutations that make her so unusual.
For decades Jo Cameron has been cheerfully bumping, burning and bruising herself in all manner of mishaps yet never stopped to ask why her injuries did not hurt.
She gave birth to her two children without resorting to drugs; dismissed offers of anaesthetics during dental work and when she burns herself while cooking in her Scottish Highlands home, often the first she knows about it is the smell of her burning flesh.
Virtually nothing worries her. When a white van careered into her car on a remote country road, leaving her upside down in a ditch, it was she, totally unfazed, who found herself comforting the driver.
It was not until Mrs Cameron’s 60s, as she was preparing for an arthritis operation on her hand, that she – or anyone in the medical profession – suspected that she was any different.
“My anaesthetist said, ‘You will definitely need strong painkillers after this because it can be very brutal,’” she told The Daily Telegraph. “I said, ‘I bet I won’t.’ When he saw I was right, he said, ‘This really isn’t normal.’”
It followed an operation to repair severe joint degeneration on her hip, which specialists had twice refused her as the key diagnostic criterion was pain.
Now 71, Mrs Cameron, who lives with her husband Jim near Loch Ness, has become the focus of intense research by scientists eager to establish if her sky-high pain threshold can be traced to the same location in her genome as her fearless and optimistic qualities.
Mrs Cameron said her late father was a man who “hardly ever complained” and was never seen to take a painkiller in his life. This spurred researchers at University College London to seek out two mutations of a gene known to play a role in endocannabinoid signalling, which is central to pain sensation, mood and memory.
Further tests revealed Mrs Cameron’s son, Jeremy, 41, has a similar, although lower, pain threshold.
“It puts everything into perspective,” she said. “I’ve always been covered in bumps and burns and bruises. I used to think I was just clumsy, but now I know I’m not. I just don’t get the pain signals that others learn from.”
Despite enjoying a near total absence of pain, Mrs Cameron’s unusual disposition has in the past caused her to delay seeking treatment for injuries, meaning they were often more complicated to heal.
However, the upside was an almost total fearlessness and optimistic outlook. This was clinically evidenced when she scored the lowest possible mark on a standard anxiety test.
It served her well during her 42-year career working with severely physically and mentally disabled children and adults, as well as on one camping holiday when, on the first day, she tripped headfirst into a rock, knocking out her front teeth. “My husband assumed that would be the end of the holiday – but I stood up and carried on,” she said. “People think I’m being a martyr, but it’s just the way I am.”
Now the research teams believe the genetic discovery, published in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, can kickstart
‘I’ve always been covered in bumps, burns and bruises. I used to think I was clumsy but now I know I’m not’
development of new drugs capable of treating both pain and anxiety. Dr James Cox, one of the lead authors, said the findings could lead to treatments for post-operative pain and anxiety, chronic pain and PTSD. He said: “People with rare insensitivity to pain can be valuable to medical research.”
Dr Devjit Srivastava, the NHS consultant anaesthetist who originally spotted Mrs Cameron’s rare condition, said: “The implications for these findings are immense.”