Verification of the addiction severity index Japanese version (ASI-J) as a treatment-customization, prediction, and comparison tool for alcohol-dependent individuals.

Objective: To demonstrate the usefulness of the Addiction Severity Index Japanese Version (ASI-J) in Japanese alcohol-dependent individuals. The ASI is a frequently used clinical and research instrument that measures severities in seven functional domains in people with substance abuse disorders.

Methods: A total of 370 male inpatients with a history of alcohol dependence participated in the study.

Association study of brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene polymorphism and alcoholism.

Objective: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) influences dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitters that are heavily linked to addiction. A quantitative trait loci study indicated that genes localized to 11p13, where the BDNF gene is mapped (11p13-15), increase the risk for severe alcohol withdrawal. Moreover, a recent study using a pooled-sample microarray suggested that the BDNF gene locus was included in the loci that were shown to be associated with drug abuse.

Serotonin transporter regulatory region polymorphism is associated with anorexia nervosa.

Several lines of evidence support possible serotonin transporter (5-HTT) involvement in modulating eating disorders (ED). The 5-HTT gene is a good candidate for genetic studies on the course of ED, despite controversy concerning the association between polymorphism in the 5-HTT gene promoter region (5-HTTLPR) and ED. Comparison of 5-HTTLPR distribution in 195 female Japanese ED patients and 290 age- and gender-matched control subjects facilitated examining the association between the course of the disease and 5-HTTLPR in 138 of 195 ED subjects.

Association between the brain-derived neurotrophic factor 196G/A polymorphism and eating disorders.

Several lines of evidence suggest that genetic factors might contribute to the pathogenesis of eating disorders and that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays a role in the pathophysiology of eating disorders. To investigate the role of the BDNF gene in the susceptibility to eating disorders, we analyzed the BDNF 196G/A gene polymorphism in female patients with eating disorders and female normal controls. The difference in the genotype frequency between patients (n = 198) and normal controls (n = 222) was statistically significant (P = 0.