Frequency Distribution of COMT Polymorphisms in Greek Patients with Schizophrenia and Controls: A Study of SNPs rs737865, rs4680, and rs165599

Schizophrenia, a severe psychiatric condition, is characterized by disturbances of cognition, emotion, and social functioning. The disease affects almost 1% of world population. Recent studies evaluating the role of catechol-O-methyltransferase enzyme (COMT) polymorphisms in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia have resulted in ambiguous findings. The current study examined the association of schizophrenia with three COMT polymorphisms, namely, rs737865, rs4680, and rs165599 in a Greek population. There was no significant association between schizophrenia and any of the three SNPs examined. However, haplotype analysis showed that cases have higher frequency of the T-A-A haplotype, and participants with that haplotype were at increased risk for developing schizophrenia (OR = 1.52; CL : 1.12-2.08; P = 0.008). Furthermore, patients with schizophrenia displayed an excess of TC/AA/AA and the TT/AA/GA genotypes. Similarly a protective effect of TT/GG/GG and TT/GA/GG was suggested by our results.