No evidence of association between Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met genotype and performance on neuropsychological tasks in children with ADHD: a case-control study.
BACKGROUND
Several studies have suggested an association between the functional Val158Met polymorphism in the Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) gene and neurocognitive performance. Two studies showed that subjects with the low activity Met allele performed better on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and another study found an effect on processing speed and attention.


METHODS
We set out to examine the association between the Val158Met polymorphism and performance on neurocognitive tasks including those tapping working memory, attention and speed, impulsiveness and response inhibition in a sample of 124 children with ADHD. Task performance for each genotypic group was compared using analysis of variance.


RESULTS
There was no evidence of association with performance on any of the neurocognitive tasks.


CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that Val158Met COMT genotype is not associated with neurocognitive performance in our sample.
Mills
Sophie
S
Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Wales College of Medicine, Cardiff, CF14 4XN, UK. millss1@cf.ac.uk
Langley
Kate
K
Van den Bree
Marianne
M
Street
Eddy
E
Turic
Darko
D
Owen
Michael J
MJ
O'Donovan
Michael C
MC
Thapar
Anita
A
D000293:Adolescent; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000201:enzymology / Q000235:genetics*; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase / Q000235:genetics*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008715:Methionine / Q000235:genetics; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013647:Task Performance and Analysis; D014633:Valine / Q000235:genetics
D008715:Methionine; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase; D014633:Valine