Plenary Session IV: New Genetic Technologies

✍ Scribed by Propping, Peter

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 51 KB
• Volume: 81
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0148-7299
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-8628(19981106)81:6<503::aid-ajmg6>3.0.co;2-5

✦ Synopsis

We have studied 56 Russian patients (mean age 38.3, standard deviation [SD] 13.2; duration of illness 15.4, SD 4.1) who met the diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia according ICD-10 and 42 healthy controls matched for age, ethnicity, and gender. The frequency of allele A2 (C102) was higher in schizophrenias than in controls (0.61 and 0.44, respectively). Frequencies of genotypes A1A1, A1A2, and A2A2 were 14.5%, 49.1%, and 36.4% in schizophrenic patients and 41.4%, 29.3%, and 29.3% in the control group, respectively. Our results support the evidence for the association between schizophrenia and allele A2 of 5HTR2A polymorphism.

Recently, an association between one of the genes involved in serotonin metabolism (serotonin transporter gene) and anxiety-related personality traits was reported. We investigated an association between HTR2A polymorphism and personality traits assessed with the Eysenck Personality Inventory, MMPI, and the State-trait Anxiety Inventory (trait anxiety) both in schizophrenics and controls. No statistically significant association has been found between personality traits studied and HTR2A polymorphism in both groups.

of Japan. Patients with alcoholism were diagnosed according to DSM-III-R criteria. The polymorphisms of these genes were analyzed by PCR RFLPs.

We found no significant association between alcoholism and serotonergic receptor genes. These results suggest that serotonergic receptor genes may not directly contribute to the etiology of alcoholism.