No abstract

Major depression is a complex psychiatric disorder involving multiple factors, including genetic and personality components. This study used 17 polymorphisms of dopamine transporter gene (DAT1) to explore whether this gene is associated with major depression and whether it influences personality traits in patients with major depression. The DAT1 polymorphisms were analyzed in 1017 unrelated individuals and 459 patients were eligible to assess personality traits. We found a borderline association between controls and total major depression and between major depression with family history versus controls; however, these differences were obscured after correction for multiple testing. Furthermore, the DAT1 polymorphisms were not associated either with major depression in haplotype analysis or with personality traits. Despite the fact that several association tendencies were found between DAT1 and major depression, we did not confirm a major role for DAT1 in the susceptibility to major depression. In addition, DAT1 does not seem to affect personality traits observed in patients with major depression.

The dopamine transporter (DAT) plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis of alcohol dependence (AD) and major depression (MD), and males have more risk factors for the development of AD. However, imaging studies on brain DAT availability in males with AD comorbid with MD (AD/MD) are limited, and the association of DAT availability with cognitive function and depressive scores in patients with AD/MD has not been analyzed. Hence, this study examined the relationship between brain DAT availability, cognitive function, and depressive symptoms in different subgroups of males with AD.Single-photon emission computed tomography imaging with 99mTc-TRODAT-1 as a ligand was used to measure striatal DAT availability in 49 patients with AD (28 pure AD and 21 AD/MD) and 24 age- and sex-matched healthy volunteers. The Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) and 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale were used to assess neurocognitive function and depressive scores, respectively. Patients with AD showed a significant reduction of DAT availability in 3 brain regions (P < 0.001), and this reduction was more pronounced in the patients with pure AD compared to healthy controls. The patients with AD showed significantly poorer performance on the WCST, but only in the control group was DAT availability significantly negatively correlated with total errors and perseverative errors (P < 0.001).These preliminary findings suggest that DAT availability is associated with neurocognitive function, and incongruent reduction of DAT may play a pathophysiological role in different subgroups of AD. In addition, decreased DAT availability may be associated with the severity of depressive symptoms in patients with AD/MD.