If TNF inhibitors exert, in addition to their anti-inflammatory effects at the periphery, a direct normalizing influence on central pain processing, then the fast relief reported by the patients following the commencement of anti-TNF therapy is not particularly surprising, since the standard clinical judgments in RA (VAS for pain, Disease Activity Score in 28 joints, Health Assessment Questionnaire and the quality-of-life instrument Short Form 36) are based on the patient’s subjective perception, rather than on objective parameters of the disease [68]. The gene discussed is TNF; the disease is rheumatoid arthritis.