Because pain affects every person at some point in their lives, it is of utmost importance that we can find more effective analgesic methods, and provide analgesia tailored to an individual's need as well as discovering new methods which may be able to identify those individuals who are more prone to suffering serious, or chronic pain. It has been proposed that epigenetic modifications may play a role in sensitivity to analgesia and response to trauma, such as post surgery. The effects of epigenetic changes on key genes and the role this plays in analgesia sensitivity and pain perception is deserving of further research.