Paraphilic Sexual Offenders Do Not Differ from Control Subjects with Respect to Dopamine- and Serotonin-Related Genetic Polymorphisms

Jakubczyk, Andrzej; Krasowska, Aleksandra; Bugaj, Marcin; Klimkiewicz, Anna; Łoczewska, Agata; Michalska, Aneta; Majewska, Aleksandra; Szejko, Natalia; Podgórska, Anna; Solowiej, Malgorzata; Markuszewski, Leszek; Jakima, Sławomir; Płoski, Rafał; Brower, Kirk J.; Wojnar, Marcin

doi:10.1016/j.jsxm.2016.11.309

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Clinically, pedophilia occurs almost exclusively in males, which might further support the role of male sex steroids during brain maturation. Although preliminary, small-scale studies on genetic variants in pedophiles ( n = 13) 21 and paraphilic sexual offenders ( n = 97) 22 were not able to detect alterations in a specific neurotransmitter system, they were probably underpowered to detect such a link.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Child sexual offenders show prenatal and epigenetic alterations of the androgen system

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Child sexual offending (CSO) places a serious burden on society and medicine and pedophilia (P) is considered a major risk factor for CSO. The androgen system is closely linked to sexual development and behavior. This study assessed markers of prenatal brain androgenization, genetic parameters of androgen receptor function, epigenetic regulation, and peripheral hormones in a 2 × 2 factorial design comprising the factors Offense (yes/no) and Pedophilia (yes/no) in analyzing blood samples from 194 subjects (57 P+CSO, 45 P−CSO, 20 CSO−P, and 72 controls) matched for age and intelligence. Subjects also received a comprehensive clinical screening. Independent of their sexual preference, child sexual offenders showed signs of elevated prenatal androgen exposure compared with non-offending pedophiles and controls. The methylation status of the androgen receptor gene was also higher in child sexual offenders, indicating lower functionality of the testosterone system, accompanied by lower peripheral testosterone levels. In addition, there was an interaction effect on methylation levels between offense status and androgen receptor functionality. Notably, markers of prenatal androgenization and the methylation status of the androgen receptor gene were correlated with the total number of sexual offenses committed. This study demonstrates alterations of the androgen system on a prenatal, epigenetic, and endocrine level. None of the major findings was specific for pedophilia, but they were for CSO. The findings support theories of testosterone-linked abnormalities in early brain development in delinquent behavior and suggest possible interactions of testosterone receptor gene methylation and plasma testosterone with environmental factors.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Child sexual offenders show prenatal and epigenetic alterations of the androgen system

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Later, the same group reported small genetic effects for male pedophilia: several SNPs (single-nucleotide polymorphisms) linked to androgen, estrogen, prolactin, corticotropin, serotonin, and oxytocin were associated with self-reported sexual interest in children in a community sample, but only before controlling for multiple testing (25). Examining paraphilic sexual offenders and nonoffending controls, Jakubczyk et al failed to find an association between a history of a sexual offense and the distribution of genotypes or alleles in several analyzed polymorphisms, linked to dopamine, serotonin, monoamine oxidase A, and the brainderived neurotrophic factor (26).…”

Section: Genetic Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Are There Any Biomarkers for Pedophilia and Sexual Child Abuse? A Review

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The use of biomarkers in medicine is a common and valuable approach in several clinical fields. Understanding the relationship between measurable biological processes and clinical outcomes not only is indispensable in the face of understanding physiological processes in healthy as well as in diseased organisms but also for understanding and evaluating treatment effects. Therefore, also in the context of forensic psychiatry, biomarkers and their potentially beneficial effects are of growing interest. The objective of this review is to examine if there are biomarkers that may serve as a tool to support diagnostic process, treatment evaluation, and risk assessment of pedophilic individuals and child sexual offenders. In the first part, we present an overview of the current neurobiological, as well as physiological and psychophysiological approaches to characterize pedophilia and child sexual offending. Secondly, we discuss and evaluate the impact of these approaches on the development of biomarkers for diagnosis, therapy, and risk assessment in pedophilic subjects and child sexual offenders. We conclude that a lot of research has already enhanced our neurobiological knowledge about pedophilia and child sexual offending. Although there surely exist promising parameters and approaches, in our view currently none of these is ready yet to serve as a clinically applicable diagnostic, response, or predictive biomarker for pedophilia and child sexual offending. Therefore, further work remains to be done. The development of a composite diagnostic biomarker to assess deviant sexual interest, combining several measures like functional magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalogram, eye tracking, and behavioral approaches seems to be most promising. A valid and reliable measurement of deviant sexual interest, insensitive to manipulations could significantly support clinical diagnostic process. Similarly, regarding therapy evaluation and risk assessment, a composite biomarker to assess inhibitory control functions seems to be promising. Furthermore, the application of the Research Domain Criteria-approach, a new approach for investigating and classifying mental disorders, offers the possibility to take research to a new level.

show abstract

“…The genetic studies about the paraphilic child sexual offenders in the world are not frequent according to the literature research. [1019] However, it is an important problem for all countries. [22728] We analyzed two different genetic polymorphisms which are significant in the psychiatric diseases in 70 child sexual male offenders and 70 healthy controls.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[18] One of the candidate genes, COMT having Val158Met polymorphism, has been implicated in the susceptibility of sexual abusers. [19] COMT is an enzyme which is responsible for the degradation of catecholamine and also metabolizes monoamine neurotransmitters in the central nervous system (CNS). This gene is located on chromosome 22q11.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Val158Met and brain-derived neurotrophic factor Val66Met gene polymorphisms in paraphilic sexual offenders

Cengiz

Cezayirli

Bayoğlu

et al. 2019

Indian J Psychiatry

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: Child sexual abuse (CSA) is an important problem worldwide. The reason of sex abuse is considered as multifactorial. Genetic contribution reported by recent studies is a significant evidence for this pathologic behavior. Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT) is an enzyme in the metabolic inactivation of catecholamine and substances containing catecholamines such as dopamine, epinephrine, and norepinephrine. COMT polymorphism causes functional changes in COMT enzyme activity. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a neurotrophic factor usually synthesized from central nervous system neurons. With the effect of BDNF, dopamine and serotonin play important roles on neurogenesis, survival, and synaptic plasticity. Aim: This study aims to examine COMT Val158Met (rs4680) and BDNF Val66Met (rs6265) polymorphisms in CSA. Settings and Design: This was a case–control study. Materials and Methods: Seventy paraphilic child sexual abuser patients and seventy age- and gender-matched healthy controls participated in this study. COMT Val158Met and BDNF Val66Met polymorphisms were genotyped by real-time polymerase chain reaction assay. Results: COMT Val158Met genotype frequencies were determined as GG 31.4%, GA 45.7%, and AA 22.9% in patients; GG 24.3%, GA 45.7%, and AA 8.6% in controls; and exhibited a positive relationship between the groups ( P = 0.018). BDNF Val66Met genotype frequencies were determined as GG 77.1%, GA 21.4%, and AA 1.4% in patients; GG 65.7%, GA 31.4%, AA 2.9% in controls; and no significant relationship was observed between the groups ( P = 0.317). Conclusions: This research investigated COMT (Val158Met) and BDNF (Val66Met) in paraphilic child sexual offenders. A positive relationship was found for COMT gene; however, no significant relation was observed for BDNF gene between paraphilic sexual offenders and controls.

show abstract

Paraphilic Sexual Offenders Do Not Differ from Control Subjects with Respect to Dopamine- and Serotonin-Related Genetic Polymorphisms

Cited by 12 publications

References 48 publications

Child sexual offenders show prenatal and epigenetic alterations of the androgen system

Child sexual offenders show prenatal and epigenetic alterations of the androgen system

Are There Any Biomarkers for Pedophilia and Sexual Child Abuse? A Review

Catechol-O-Methyltransferase Val158Met and brain-derived neurotrophic factor Val66Met gene polymorphisms in paraphilic sexual offenders

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About