Microdeletion in a FAAH pseudogene identified in a patient with high anandamide concentrations and pain insensitivity

Abdella M Habib, Andrei L Okorokov, Matthew N Hill, Jose T Bras, Man-Cheung Lee, Shengnan Li, Samuel J Gossage, Marie van Drimmelen, Maria Morena, Henry Houlden, Juan D Ramirez, David L H Bennett, Devjit Srivastava, James J Cox. Br J Anaesth. 2019 Aug;123(2):e249-e253.

Case seriesHumans

Design

Case series

Subjects

One 66-year-old woman with lifelong pain insensitivity, compared with control carriers of a common FAAH variant

Dose used in the study

No palmitoylethanolamide was given; blood levels were measured

Duration

Not stated in the abstract

What was measured

Genetic analysis of the FAAH region; circulating anandamide, palmitoylethanolamide and oleoylethanolamide.

What the authors reported

This case report found:

• The woman needed no analgesia after hand surgery and had a history of painless, fast-healing injuries.
• She carried a microdeletion in the pseudogene FAAH-OUT plus a common FAAH variant that lowers enzyme activity.
• Circulating anandamide, palmitoylethanolamide and oleoylethanolamide were significantly higher than in controls with the common variant alone.

Limits of this study

A single case report; PEA was measured, not given. It cannot show what supplementing PEA does. Funding and conflicts not stated in the abstract.

Source

PubMed 30929760 · doi:10.1016/j.bja.2019.02.019

Entry checked against the abstract on PubMed on 2026-09-22. The dose shown is the dose the researchers used. It is not a recommendation. How to read this page.