Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment (Mar 2016)

No association between BDNFVal66Met polymorphism and treatment response in obsessive-compulsive disorder in the Japanese population

  • Umehara H,
  • Numata S,
  • Kinoshita M,
  • Watanabe S,
  • Nakaaki S,
  • Sumitani S,
  • Ohmori T

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2016, no. Issue 1
pp. 611 – 615

Abstract

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Hidehiro Umehara,1 Shusuke Numata,1 Makoto Kinoshita,1 Shinya Watanabe,1 Shutaro Nakaaki,2 Satsuki Sumitani,1,3 Tetsuro Ohmori1 1Department of Psychiatry, Institute of Biomedical Sciences, Tokushima University Graduate School, Tokushima, 2Laboratory of Aging, Behavior and Cognition, Department of Neuropsychiatry, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, 3Academic Support Office for Students with Special Needs, Tokushima University, Tokushima, Japan Aim: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a member of the neurotrophin family, and it promotes the development and function of dopaminergic and serotonergic neurons. The Met allele of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism is associated with a decrease in activity-dependent secretion of BDNF compared with the Val allele, and a number of studies have provided evidence for the association between this polymorphism and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The purpose of this study was to investigate whether this functional variant of the BDNF gene is associated with OCD and treatment response in patients with OCD in the Japanese population.Methods: We first performed a case–control association study between the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and OCD (175 cases and 2,027 controls). Then, we examined an association between this polymorphism and treatment response in 96 patients with OCD.Results: We found no significant association between the Met allele and OCD risk or between the Met allele and treatment responses to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or serotonin reuptake inhibitor with an atypical antipsychotic (P>0.05).Conclusion: Our results suggest that the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism may not be associated as a risk factor for developing OCD or with therapeutic response in patients with OCD in the Japanese population. Keywords: obsessive-compulsive disorder, BDNF, treatment response, association study, SSRI, atypical antipsychotic

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