title: Tyrosine hydroxylase allelic distribution in suicide attempters.
abstract: A tetranucleotide repeat polymorphism in the first intron of the tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) locus was examined in a group of 118 adult suicide attempters and 78 control subjects. The suicide attempters were diagnosed according to DSM-III-R criteria at the index attempt and represented the following diagnoses: major depression (18), dysthymia (13), anxiety disorders (16), adjustment disorders (29), psychoactive substance abuse disorders (27) and psychotic disorders (15). A significant variation in the prevalence of carriers of the TH-K3 allele (high for suicide attempters with adjustment disorders, P = 0.0023) and a tendency toward a variation of the TH-K1 allele (low among all suicide attempters, P = 0.046) was observed. In light of other data the variation of TH-K1 and TH-K3 suggests that these alleles may reflect predisposition for a common phenotype with altered vulnerability for psychiatric disorders.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Psychosocial Factors and Health, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. Maj-Liz.Persson@cnsf.ki.se
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Persson
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wasserman
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Geijer
authors.forename: E G
authors.initials: EG
authors.lastname: Jönsson
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Terenius
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D005260:Female; D006580:Genetic Carrier Screening; D006801:Humans; D007438:Introns; D008297:Male; D018895:Microsatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D010641:Phenotype; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic / Q000235:genetics; D012307:Risk Factors; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014446:Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D014446:Tyrosine 3-Monooxygenase