Trial reportBMC musculoskeletal disorders2012
Genetic contribution of catechol-O-methyltransferase variants in treatment outcome of low back pain: a prospective genetic association study.
Trial report in BMC musculoskeletal disorders, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 38 citations in OpenAlex.
- Association of Genetic Variants with Postsurgical Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-analyses.Anesthesiology · 2023Pooled it
- Genome-wide meta-analysis of 158,000 individuals of European ancestry identifies three loci associated with chronic back pain.PLoS genetics · 2018Pooled it
- Trial
- Challenges and opportunities for omics-based precision medicine in chronic low back pain.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2025Review
- Pain in idiopathic scoliosis not associated with known genetic variants for pain.Pain reports · 2025Article
- Pain-related single nucleotide polymorphisms: association with lumbar spinal stenosis patient experience and non-surgical treatment outcomes.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2024Observational
- COMT and SCN9A gene variants do not contribute to chronic low back pain in Mexican-Mestizo patients.Acta neurochirurgica · 2024Article
- Contribution of COMT and BDNF Genotype and Expression to the Risk of Transition From Acute to Chronic Low Back Pain.The Clinical journal of pain · 2020Article
- Lumbar Degenerative Disease Part 1: Anatomy and Pathophysiology of Intervertebral Discogenic Pain and Radiofrequency Ablation of Basivertebral and Sinuvertebral Nerve Treatment for Chronic Discogenic Back Pain: A Prospective Case Series and Review of Literature.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
- Associations Between Catecholaminergic and Serotonergic Genes and Persistent Arm Pain Severity Following Breast Cancer Surgery.The journal of pain · 2019Article
- Catechol-O-methyltransferase polymorphism Val158Met is associated with distal neuropathic pain in HIV-associated sensory neuropathy.AIDS (London, England) · 2019Observational
- A common polymorphism of COMT was associated with symptomatic lumbar disc herniation based on a large sample with Chinese Han ancestry.Scientific reports · 2018Article
- Genetic background of degenerative disc disease in the lumbar spine.Spine surgery and related research · 2018Review
- Comorbidity of Alcohol Use Disorder and Chronic Pain: Genetic Influences on Brain Reward and Stress Systems.Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research · 2017Review
- Association between theBalkan journal of medical genetics : BJMG · 2015Article
- Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene polymorphisms are associated with baseline disability but not long-term treatment outcome in patients with chronic low back pain.European spine journal : official publication of the European Spine Society, the European Spinal Deformity Society, and the European Section of the Cervical Spine Research Society · 2015Article
- A novel catechol-O-methyltransferase variant associated with human disc degeneration.International journal of medical sciences · 2014Article
- Transforming pain medicine: adapting to science and society.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2013Review
- The phenotypic and genetic signatures of common musculoskeletal pain conditions.Nature reviews. Rheumatology · 2013Review
- Pharmacogenetics of chronic pain and its treatment.Mediators of inflammation · 2013Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundTreatment outcome of low back pain (LBP) is associated with inter-individual variations in pain relief and functional disability. Genetic variants of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene have previously been shown to be associated with pain sensitivity and pain medication. This study examines the association between COMT polymorphisms and 7-11 year change in Oswestry Disability Index (ODI) and Visual Analog Score (VAS) for LBP as clinical outcome variables in patients treated with surgical instrumented lumbar fusion or cognitive intervention and exercise.
methods93 unrelated patients with chronic LBP for duration of >1 year and lumbar disc degeneration (LDD) were treated with lumbar fusion (N = 60) or cognitive therapy and exercises (N = 33). Standardised questionnaires assessing the ODI, VAS LBP, psychological factors and use of analgesics, were answered by patients both at baseline and at 7-11 years follow-up. Four SNPs in the COMT gene were successfully genotyped. Single marker as well as haplotype association with change in ODI and VAS LBP, were analyzed using Haploview, linear regression and R-package Haplostats. P-values were not formally corrected for multiple testing as this was an explorative study.
resultsAssociation analysis of individual SNPs adjusted for covariates revealed association of rs4633 and rs4680 with post treatment improvement in VAS LBP (p = 0.02, mean difference (β) = 13.5 and p = 0.02, β = 14.2 respectively). SNPs, rs4633 and rs4680 were found to be genotypically similar and in strong linkage disequilibrium (LD). A significant association was found with covariates, analgesics (p = 0.001, β = 18.6); anxiety and depression (p = 0.008, β = 15.4) and age (p = 0.03, mean difference per year (β) = 0.7) at follow-up. There was a tendency for better improvement among heterozygous patients compared to the homozygous. No association was observed for the analysis of the common haplotypes, these SNPs were situated on.
conclusionsResults suggest an influence of genetic variants of COMT gene in describing the variation in pain after treatment for low back pain. Replication in large samples with testing for other pain related genes is warranted.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.