title: Psychiatric symptoms of patients with primary mitochondrial DNA disorders.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of our study was to assess psychiatric symptoms in patients with genetically proven primary mutation of the mitochondrial DNA.
  
  
  METHODS
  19 adults with known mitochondrial mutation (MT) have been assessed with the Stanford Health Assessment Questionnaire 20-item Disability Index (HAQ-DI), the Symptom Check List-90-Revised (SCL-90-R), the Beck Depression Inventory-Short Form (BDI-SF), the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and the clinical version of the Structured Clinical Interview for the the DSM-IV (SCID-I and SCID-II) As control, 10 patients with hereditary sensorimotor neuropathy (HN), harboring the peripheral myelin protein-22 (PMP22) mutation were examined with the same tools.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The two groups did not differ significantly in gender, age or education. Mean HAQ-DI score was 0.82 in the MT (range: 0-1.625) and 0.71 in the HN group (range: 0-1.625). Level of disability between the two groups did not differ significantly (p = 0.6076). MT patients scored significantly higher on the BDI-SF and HDRS than HN patients (12.85 versus 4.40, p = 0.031, and 15.62 vs 7.30, p = 0.043, respectively). The Global Severity Index (GSI) of SCL-90-R also showed significant difference (1.44 vs 0.46, p = 0.013) as well as the subscales except for somatization. SCID-I interview yielded a variety of mood disorders in both groups. Eight MT patient (42%) had past, 6 (31%) had current, 5 (26%) had both past and current psychiatric diagnosis, yielding a lifetime prevalence of 9/19 (47%) in the MT group. In the HN group, 3 patients had both past and current diagnosis showing a lifetime prevalence of 3/10 (30%) in this group. SCID-II detected personality disorder in 8 MT cases (42%), yielding 3 avoidant, 2 obsessive-compulsive and 3 personality disorder not otherwise specified (NOS) diagnosis. No personality disorder was identified in the HN group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Clinicians should be aware of the high prevalence of psychiatric symptoms in patients with mitochondrial mutation which has both etiologic and therapeutic relevance.
authors.affiliation: Clinical and Research Center for Molecular Neurology, Department of Neurology, Semmelweis University, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Gabriella
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Inczedy-Farkas
authors.forename: Viktoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Remenyi
authors.forename: Aniko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gal
authors.forename: Zsofia
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Varga
authors.forename: Petra
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Balla
authors.forename: Agnes
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Udvardy-Meszaros
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bereznai
authors.forename: Maria Judit
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Molnar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000235:genetics*; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D015417:Hereditary Sensory and Motor Neuropathy / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000209:etiology* / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D008875:Middle Aged; D028361:Mitochondrial Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D009154:Mutation / Q000502:physiology; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010554:Personality Disorders / Q000235:genetics / Q000523:psychology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial; C493230:SLC6A4 protein, human; D050486:Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins