Pain reporting at different body sites is explained by a single underlying genetic factor

Musculoskeletal pain is reported commonly; however, the extent to which pain in individual body areas reflects the severity of site-specific pathology or a more generalized propensity to feel pain is uncertain. We used a classical twin design to examine the pattern of pain reporting at different body sites among monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twins to assess its heritability and to examine evidence for a common underlying propensity to report musculoskeletal pain.