Association between the Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met Polymorphism and Alexithymia in Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Purpose: Alexithymia, defined as a deficit in the ability to recognize and describe one’s own feelings, may be related to the developmentand maintenance of obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism and alexithymia in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Materials and Methods: We recruited 244 patients with OCD (169 males, 75 females). Alexithymia was assessed using the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and genotyping of the COMT Val158Met polymorphism was evaluated.
Results: Patients with the COMT Val/Val genotype had significantly higher total and “difficulty identifying feelings” (DIF) subdimensionscores than those with the Val/Met or Met/Met genotypes. Patients with the COMT Val/Val genotype had significantly higher “difficulty describing feelings” (DDF) subdimension scores than those with the COMT Val/Met genotype. However, there were no differences in the scores for the “externally oriented thinking” (EOT) subdimension among the three genotypes.
Conclusion: These results indicate that the high-activity Val allele of the COMT Val158Met polymorphism is associated with increasedalexithymic traits in patients with OCD. The present finding suggests that alexithymia is an endophenotype of OCD that is mediated by the COMT Val158Met polymorphism.

참고문헌 (Reference)

1 Büttner-Westphal H, "Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (authorized German translation)" 1 : 226-233, 1991

2 Bagby RM, "The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale--I. Item selection and cross-validation of the factor structure" 38 : 23-32, 1994

3 Goerlich KS, "The sound of feelings: electrophysiological responses to emotional speech in alexithymia" 7 : e36951-, 2012

4 Dere J, "The cultural shaping of alexithymia: values and externally oriented thinking in a Chinese clinical sample" 54 : 362-368, 2013

5 Kooiman CG, "The assessment of alexithymia: a critical review of the literature and a psychometric study of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20" 53 : 1083-1090, 2002

6 Kano M, "The alexithymic brain: the neural pathways linking alexithymia to physical disorders" 7 : 1-, 2013

7 Bagby RM, "The Twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale--II. Convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity" 38 : 33-40, 1994

8 First MB, "Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders, Clinician Version (SCID-CV)" American Psychiatric Press 1996

9 Kano M, "Serotonin transporter gene promoter polymorphism and alexithymia" 65 : 76-82, 2012

10 Taylor GJ, "Recent developments in alexithymia theory and research" 45 : 134-142, 2000

11 Hermes S, "No association between catechol-O-methyltransferase val158met polymorphism and alexithymia" 57 : 51-61, 2011

12 Koh MJ, "Lack of Association between Oxytocin Receptor (OXTR) Gene Polymorphisms and Alexithymia: Evidence from Patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder" 10 : e0143168-, 2015

13 Walter NT, "Interaction effect of functional variants of the BDNF and DRD2/ANKK1 gene is associated with alexithymia in healthy human subjects" 73 : 23-28, 2011

14 De Berardis D, "Insight and alexithymia in adult outpatients with obsessivecompulsive disorder" 255 : 350-358, 2005

15 Opmeer EM, "Influence of COMT val158met genotype on the depressed brain during emotional processing and working memory" 8 : 73290-, 2013

16 Lachman HM, "Human catechol-O-methyltransferase pharmacogenetics: description of a functional polymorphism and its potential application to neuropsychiatric disorders" 6 : 243-250, 1996

17 Bevilacqua L, "Genetics of emotion" 15 : 401-408, 2011

18 Picardi A, "Genetic influences on alexithymia and their relationship with depressive symptoms" 71 : 256-263, 2011

19 Jørgensen MM, "Genetic and environmental factors in alexithymia: a population-based study of 8,785 Danish twin pairs" 76 : 369-375, 2007

20 Loas G, "Factor analysis of the French version of the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20)" 29 : 139-144, 1996

21 Witte AV, "Effects of COMT polymorphisms on brain function and behavior in health and disease" 88 : 418-428, 2012

22 Nieoullon A, "Dopamine: a key regulator to adapt action, emotion, motivation and cognition" 16 (16): S3-S9, 2003

23 Lee Y, "Development and validation of a Korean version of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20K)" 35 : 888-899, 1996

24 Larsen JK, "Cognitive and emotional characteristics of alexithymia: a review of neurobiological studies" 54 : 533-541, 2003

25 Matsumoto M, "Catechol O-methyltransferase mRNA expression in human and rat brain: evidence for a role in cortical neuronal function" 116 : 127-137, 2003

26 Aleman A, "Brain imaging, genetics and emotion" 79 : 58-69, 2008

27 Ham BJ, "Association between the catechol O-methyltransferase Val108/158Met polymorphism and alexithymia" 52 : 151-154, 2005

28 Jongen S, "An investigation of facial emotion recognition impairments in alexithymia and its neural correlates" 271 : 129-139, 2014

29 Kim SJ, "An association study of catechol-O-methyltransferase and monoamine oxidase A polymorphisms and personality traits in Koreans" 401 : 154-158, 2006

30 De Berardis D, "Alexithymia, suicidal ideation, and serum lipid levels among drug-naïve outpatients with obsessive-compulsive disorder" 36 : 125-130, 2014

31 Bailey PE, "Alexithymia, somatization and negative affect in a community sample" 150 : 13-20, 2007

32 Assogna F, "Alexithymia is a non-motor symptom of Parkinson disease" 20 : 133-141, 2012

33 Roh D, "Alexithymia in obsessive-compulsive disorder: clinical correlates and symptom dimensions" 199 : 690-695, 2011

34 Grabe HJ, "Alexithymia in obsessive-compulsive disorder - results from a family study" 75 : 312-318, 2006

35 Moriguchi Y, "Age and gender effect on alexithymia in large, Japanese community and clinical samples: a cross-validation study of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20)" 1 : 7-, 2007

36 Kang JI, "Abnormalities of emotional awareness and perception in patients with obsessivecompulsive disorder" 141 : 286-293, 2012

37 Montgomery SA, "A new depression scale designed to be sensitive to change" 134 : 382-389, 1979

38 Henry JD, "A new conceptualization of alexithymia in the general adult population: implications for research involving older adults" 60 : 535-543, 2006

39 Baughman HM, "A behavior genetic analysis of trait emotional intelligence and alexithymia: a replication" 16 : 554-559, 2013