title: An association study between catechol-O-methyl transferase gene polymorphism and methamphetamine psychotic disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  A series of methamphetamine psychosis reveals two kinds of clinical courses of methamphetamine psychosis: transient type and prolonged type. Furthermore, paranoid psychosis sometimes recurs without methamphetamine reuse, referred to as spontaneous relapse. Dysfunction of central dopaminergic neurotransmission has been implicated in the pathogenesis of these psychiatric states. Catechol-O-methyl transferase appears to play a unique role in regulating synaptic dopaminergic activity. This study aimed to investigate whether a functional polymorphism of the catechol-O-methyl transferase gene would be involved in the development of these psychiatric states.
  
  
  METHODS
  We examined the functional polymorphism of val 158 met (catechol-O-methyl transferase) in 143 patients with methamphetamine psychosis and 200 healthy controls in Japan. The patients were divided into subgroups by several characteristic clinical features.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found a significant difference in the catechol-O-methyl transferase allele frequency between patients with spontaneous relapse and the controls (P=0.018, odds ratio=1.67). Odds ratio implied that the patients with spontaneous relapse had a nearly 1.7-fold higher rate of the low activity alleles (met) than the controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results indicate that the met allele frequency of the catechol-O-methyl transferase is associated with patients who experienced methamphetamine psychosis and spontaneous relapse, suggesting that patients with a met allele appear to be at increased risk of an adverse response to methamphetamine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, Hamamatsu University School of Medicine, Hamamatsu, and Ichihara Hospital, Chiba, Japan.
authors.forename: Atsuko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Kazuhiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Nakamura
authors.forename: Yoshimoto
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Sekine
authors.forename: Yoshio
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Minabe
authors.forename: Nori
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Takei
authors.forename: Katsuaki
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Yasuhide
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Iwata
authors.forename: Masayoshi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawai
authors.forename: Kiyokazu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takebayashi
authors.forename: Hideo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsuzaki
authors.forename: Masaomi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iyo
authors.forename: Norio
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Ozaki
authors.forename: Toshiya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Inada
authors.forename: Nakao
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Iwata
authors.forename: Mutsuo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Harano
authors.forename: Tokutaro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Komiyama
authors.forename: Mitsuhiko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Ichiro
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sora
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ujike
authors.forename: Norio
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mori
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008694:Methamphetamine / Q000633:toxicity*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics*; D012008:Recurrence; D012016:Reference Values
chemical_list: D008694:Methamphetamine; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase