The catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene is a schizophrenia susceptibility gene. A common functional polymorphism of this gene, Val158/158Met, has been proposed to influence gray matter volume (GMV). However, the effects of this polymorphism on cortical thickness/surface area in schizophrenic patients are less clear. In this study, we explored the relationship between the Val158Met polymorphism of the COMT gene and the GMV/cortical thickness/cortical surface area in 150 first-episode treatment-naïve patients with schizophrenia and 100 healthy controls. Main effects of diagnosis were found for GMV in the cerebellum and the visual, medial temporal, parietal, and middle frontal cortex. Patients with schizophrenia showed reduced GMVs in these regions. And main effects of genotype were detected for GMV in the left superior frontal gyrus. Moreover, a diagnosis × genotype interaction was found for the GMV of the left precuneus, and the effect of the COMT gene on GMV was due mainly to cortical thickness rather than cortical surface area. In addition, a pattern of increased GMV in the precuneus with increasing Met dose found in healthy controls was lost in patients with schizophrenia. These findings suggest that the COMTMet variant is associated with the disruption of dopaminergic influence on gray matter in schizophrenia, and the effect of the COMT gene on GMV in schizophrenia is mainly due to changes in cortical thickness rather than in cortical surface area.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5562642 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12264-014-1491-7 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Socio-demographic and clinical profiles of adults with an intellectual disability admitted to acute general psychiatric wards in a Singapore hospital.
J Intellect Dev Disabil
June 2024
Department of Developmental Psychiatry, Institute of Mental Health, Singapore.
Background: People with an intellectual disability have a higher risk of developing mental disorders compared to the general population. Available evidence suggests those with an intellectual disability receiving inpatient treatment in general psychiatric wards may have certain unique characteristics.
Method: Data gathered from a retrospective review of records of adults with intellectual disability admitted to general psychiatry wards in a tertiary psychiatric hospital in Singapore were analysed.
Neurobiological fingerprints of negative symptoms in schizophrenia identified by connectome-based modeling.
Psychiatry Clin Neurosci
January 2025
Department of Radiology, and Functional and Molecular Imaging key Laboratory of Sichuan Province, West China Hospital of Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
Aim: As a central component of schizophrenia psychopathology, negative symptoms result in detrimental effects on long-term functional prognosis. However, the neurobiological mechanism underlying negative symptoms remains poorly understood, which limits the development of novel treatment interventions. This study aimed to identify the specific neural fingerprints of negative symptoms in schizophrenia.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCharacterizing the patient experience of physical restraint in psychiatric settings via a linguistic, sentiment, and metaphor analysis.
Sci Rep
January 2025
Laboratory of Neurolinguistics and Experimental Pragmatics (NEP), University School for Advanced Studies IUSS, Piazza della Vittoria 15, Pavia, 27100, Italy.
Physical Restraint (PR) is a coercive procedure used in emergency psychiatric care to ensure safety in life-threatening situations. Because of its traumatic nature, studies emphasize the importance of considering the patient's subjective experience. We pursued this aim by overcoming classic qualitative approaches and innovatively applying a multilayered semiautomated language analysis to a corpus of narratives about PR collected from 99 individuals across seven mental health services in Italy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDigital health for early psychosis in Ghana: patient and caregiver needs and preferences.
Schizophrenia (Heidelb)
January 2025
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
In West Africa, the long-term consequences of poor early psychosis recovery include poverty, neglect, and community ostracization. To understand the potential for digital health approaches to support early psychosis care in Ghana, we conducted a survey study among early psychosis patients and their caregivers about mental health needs, technology use and access, and interest in digital mental health. Hospital staff at Accra Psychiatric Hospital reviewed hospital medical records from January 2023 - December 2023 identifying young adults (≥18 years old) who had experienced psychosis symptoms for the first time within the prior five years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFReal-World Effectiveness of Long-Acting Injectable and Oral Antipsychotic Agents in US Medicare Patients with Schizophrenia.
Adv Ther
January 2025
Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Introduction: Daily oral antipsychotics (OAPs) are the mainstay of schizophrenia treatment; however, long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIs) are associated with better treatment adherence and improved outcomes.
Methods: This study assessed the real-world comparative effectiveness of LAIs and daily OAPs using claims data from a nationally representative sample of fee-for-service Medicare beneficiaries with schizophrenia. Antipsychotic discontinuation, psychiatric hospitalization, and treatment failure were compared relative to different reference groups using within-individual Cox regression models.
Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!