Background
We conducted a meta-analysis to re-evaluate the role of the dopamine D4 receptor gene
48-base-pair- repeat (DRD4) polymorphism in mood disorders.
Methods
DRD4 allele frequencies were compared between 917 patients with unipolar (UP) or bipolar
affective disorder (BP) and 1164 control subjects from 12 samples, using the Cochrane
Review Manager.
Results
An association was found between all mood disorder groups and DRD4.2. After correcting
for multiple testing, the association between DRD4.2 and BP dropped to insignificance;
however, the evidence of an association between the DRD4.2 allele and UP (p < .001) and the combined group (p < .001) remained. There was no evidence for heterogeneity or publication bias.
Conclusions
These findings suggest that the DRD4.2 allele is a risk allele for depression symptomatology.
Meta-analysis may be a valuable objective tool for a quantitative summary of evidence
for association studies in psychiatric genetics.
Key words
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Article Info
Publication History
Published online: March 18, 2005
Accepted:
January 19,
2005
Received in revised form:
December 30,
2004
Received:
August 6,
2004
Footnotes
This study is supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO, No. 904-61-196), Pioneer, Centre for Medical Systems Biology, and by the Interuniversity Attraction Poles (IUAP) program P5/19 of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (POD).
Identification
Copyright
© 2005 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
