Although requiring replication in larger samples, these findings provide preliminary evidence that sequence variation in SLC1A1 is associated with susceptibility to OCD, particularly in males. Furthermore, these results provide support for the role of altered glutamatergic neurotransmission in the pathogenesis of OCD.

Within bipolar disorder, variation in the BDNF gene appears to predict risk for developing rapid cycling according to DSM-IV. Incorporating this clinical sub-phenotyping into other studies of the BDNF gene may help to resolve some of the inconsistencies reported thus far concerning BDNF and bipolar disorder.

In this preliminary study, 16 psychotropic-naïve pediatric OCD patients were studied using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and genotyped for six candidate polymorphisms in two glutamate system genes. A significant association was identified between the rs1019385 polymorphism of glutamate receptor, ionotropic, N-methyl-d-aspartate 2B (GRIN2B) and decreased anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) glutamatergic concentration (Glx, p=0.02) but not with occipital Glx. These results suggest that GRIN2B may be associated with Glx in ACC, a region consistently implicated in OCD.

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