Decision-making impairment is related to serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism in a sample of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
OBJECTIVE
Decision-making impairment is an important feature of some psychiatric disorders, such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and substance-use disorders, and is associated with dysfunction of the fronto-subcortical circuit, mainly the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC). Several data reports support significant correlations between decision-making impairment and the serotonin system. Thus, this neurotransmission system may be a major step in some cognitive features, particularly in OCD because serotonin is associated with this disorder. Therefore, the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR) may be related to the modulation of these cognitive characteristics. In a sample of Caucasian OCD patients, we explored the link between decision-making and the 5-HTTLPR.


METHODS
We used the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) to measure decision-making in 49 OCD patients, according to the DSM-IV criteria. All patients were submitted to Y-BOCS, BDI, BAI, the Raven Progressive Matrices, the Continuous Performance Task, and the Trail Making Test. We grouped S- and/or Lg-carriers in view of the fact that these act in a nearly dominant way.


RESULTS
On IGT, S- and/or Lg-carriers had significantly lower scores on the third, fourth, and fifth blocks. These findings were confirmed after adjusting for clinical and cognitive variables.


CONCLUSIONS
Inconclusive findings about the link between OCD and 5-HTTLPR may be better elucidated by studying OCD subgroups that could be more related in some genetic characteristics. Based on our study, low performance on IGT is associated with S- and/or Lg-carriers.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results corroborate the hypothesis that the pattern of neuropsychological functioning observed in previous studies may constitute a biological marker or heritable endophenotype of OCD.
da Rocha
Felipe Filardi
FF
Pharmacology and Molecular Biochemistry Program-UFMG, Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Malloy-Diniz
Leandro
L
Lage
Naira Vassalo
NV
Romano-Silva
Marco Aurélio
MA
de Marco
Luiz Armando
LA
Correa
Humberto
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D005260:Female; D005715:Gambling / Q000523:psychology; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D055815:Young Adult
D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins