I have TN which started when I woke up from neck surgery. My father's two sisters both had surgery for TN. Maybe even though it is not considered genetically linked, it is familial and does tend to run in families. From reading the above posts, it does seem to run in families!
My mother told me I had a great uncle with it in the 30's, (I was diagnosed with TN at age 16 in 1970), and he finally had his nerve severed to stop the pain. She also told me he would hang his head in a sling to take the pressure off of the nerve? However my neurosurgeon has told me that TN is not hereditary.
Re hereditary. My maternal grandmother had tic delaroux, I was diagnosed with TN 6 years ago, and my younger brother was diagnosed 6 months ago
Trigeminal neuralgia is usually not hereditary.