1. Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (CIP)
Imagine falling off a bicycle, scraping your knees, bruising your ribs and not even wincing. That’s how life was for a little girl in Pakistan who came to global attention when doctors realized something strange. She never cried. Not as a baby, not as a child, not even when she broke a bone.
Turns out, she had a condition so rare it didn’t even have a name in her village. She was born with a mutation in a gene called SCN9A and because of it, she literally couldn’t feel pain.
Doctors were stunned. She could feel pressure, touch, even heat but pain? Nothing.
This isn’t science fiction. It’s a real genetic disorder called Congenital Insensitivity to Pain (CIP) — and it’s teaching researchers more about the biology of pain than any textbook ever has.
- SCN9A encodes the sodium channel NaV1.7. Without it, pain signals simply cannot reach the brain mdpi.com+4medlineplus.gov+4thinkgenetic.org+4.
- NTRK1/TRKA mutations cause CIPA (HSAN IV) with both insensitivity to pain and inability to sweat reddit.com+9nature.com+9verywellhealth.com+9.
- PRDM12 (HSAN VIII) mutations prevent proper nociceptor development, causing lifelong pain insensitivity en.wikipedia.org+15rarediseases.org+15en.wikipedia.org+15.
Real-Life Cases I found online
- The ultra-rare Marsili syndrome appears in just 17 known people worldwide; they feel no pain but retain some temperature sensation wired.com+2en.wikipedia.org+2reddit.com+2.
- Jo Cameron, a 71-year-old from Scotland, lives without pain, anxiety, or fear thanks to mutations in the FAAH gene and a related pseudogene. She’s become a key subject in current pain research theguardian.com+4en.wikipedia.org+4wired.com+4.
The Double-Edged Sword of No Pain
- People with CIP often suffer unnoticed injuries—burns, broken bones, self-harm. Many don’t live past 25 due to untreated complications, infections, or extreme temperature crises reddit.com+13verywellhealth.com+13reddit.com+13.
- Jo Cameron, on the other hand, values her lack of pain, saying it also frees her from anxiety thinkgenetic.org+6wired.com+6reddit.com+6.
Why It Matters for Medicine
Understanding these “painless” genes opens the door for new, non-opioid pain therapies. For example, the FDA recently approved suzetrigine, a drug targeting sodium channels inspired by studies of SCN9A — a major breakthrough in pain management. Read more, it’s very interesting.
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