BACKGROUND Cognitive deficits such as poor selective attention and executive functions decline have been reported in patients with schizophrenia. Many studies have emphasized the role of dopamine in regulating cognitive functions in the general population as well as in schizophrenia. However, the relationship between cognitive processes, schizophrenia and dopaminergic candidate genes is an orig...

BACKGROUND Bipolar disorder and schizophrenia are hypothesized to share some genetic background. METHODS In a two-phase study, we evaluated the effect of five promising candidate genes for psychotic disorders, DAOA, COMT, DTNBP1, NRG1, and AKT1, on bipolar spectrum disorder, psychotic disorder, and related cognitive endophenotypes in a Finnish family-based sample ascertained for bipolar disor...

Objective The current study aimed to explore the association of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and dopamine receptors with schizophrenia and genetic association with risperidone treatment response. Methods A total of 690 schizophrenic patients (case group) were selected and 430 healthy people were included as the controls. All patients receiv...

The Val158Met polymorphism of the gene encoding catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is one of the most widely tested variants for association with psychiatric disorders, but replication has been inconsistent including both sex limitation and heterogeneity of the associated allele. In this study we investigate the association between three SNPs from COMT and anxiety and depression disorders and ...

We used sex, observed parenting quality at 18 months, and three variants of the catechol-O-methyltransferase gene (Val158Met [rs4680], intron1 [rs737865], and 3'-untranslated region [rs165599]) to predict mothers' reports of inhibitory and attentional control (assessed at 42, 54, 72, and 84 months) and internalizing symptoms (assessed at 24, 30, 42, 48, and 54 months) in a sample of 146 childre...

OBJECTIVES Common genetic SNPs in two genes, encoding catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR), which are interconnected with COMT gene regulation, have been reported to contribute to schizophrenia risk. In this study, we evaluated the association between functional polymorphisms in COMT and MTHFR and schizophrenia risk with a case-control study in a K...

Schizophrenia is a severe psychiatric disorder characterized by psychotic symptoms and functional impairment, with recurrent relapses and continuing disability. The risk factors for schizophrenia are indicators currently perceived as epiphenomena of pathophysiological processes resulting from geneenvironment interactions that remain poorly understood1. Widespread impairments in brain function a...

Hypertension is the leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease and one of the major health concerns worldwide. Genetic factors impact both the risk for hypertension and the therapeutic effect of antihypertensive drugs. Sex- and age-specific variances in the prevalence of hypertension are partly induced by estrogen. We investigated 6 single nucleotide polymorphisms in genes encoding enzymes ...