Abstract
The genes encoding for the enzymes monoamine oxidase (MAO) A and B are good candidates to investigate bipolar affective disorder. A 30 bp repeat in the MAOA promoter was recently demonstrated to be polymorphic and to affect transcriptional activity. In a family-based association design we found that none of the different repeat copies was preferentially transmitted from mothers (n = 131) to their children affected with bipolar disorder (χ2 = 2.75, 4 d.f., p = 0.6). Following on our previous finding of an excess of low-activity genotypes of catechol-O-methyltransferase in patients with a rapid cycling form of illness, we examined for a similar trend with MAOA alleles. In an extended sample we found a non-significant trend for patients with an ultra-rapid cycling form of illness (n = 29) to have a higher frequency of low-activity alleles compared with 92 bipolar patients with a non-rapid cycling course of illness (χ2 = 2.37, 1 d.f., p = 0.13).
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 293-298 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology |
Volume | 2 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 1999 |
Keywords
- Bipolar
- Genetic
- MAOA
- MAOB
- Rapid cycling
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pharmacology
- Psychiatry and Mental health
- Pharmacology (medical)