title: Low activity allele of catechol-o-methyltransferase gene and Japanese unipolar depression.
abstract: Several studies have shown that depressed patients have significantly lower catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) activity than healthy controls. Two COMT genes coding for low activity, COMTL, and high activity, COMTH have been identified. We undertook an association study on 75 depressive disorder patients, 40 bipolar disorder patients and 135 healthy controls. All the subjects were Japanese. Patients with depressive disorders exhibited a significantly higher rate of genotypes with the COMTL allele than healthy controls (p = 0.012), which was not the case in patients with bipolar disorders. The presence of the COMTL allele was significantly associated with depressive disorders (odds ratio 2.19, 95% CI 1.19-4.03). Our results suggest the COMTL allele contributed to the etiologies of depressive disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Shizuoka, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohara
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nagai
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohara
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D000483:Alleles; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000235:genetics; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology; D019263:Dysthymic Disorder / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012016:Reference Values; D013406:Suicide, Attempted
chemical_list: D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase