Erik Jönsson poster abstract

Association between a functional promoter MAOA variant and schizophrenia

Erik G Jönsson1, Nadine Norton2, Kaj Forslund1, Marja Mattila-Evenden1, Gunnar Rylander1, Marie Åsberg1, Michael J Owen2, Göran C Sedvall1

1Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Psychiatry Section, HUBIN project, Karolinska Institute, SE-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden, tel +46 8 51772626, telefax +46 8 346563, email erikj@ks.se; 2Institute of Psychological Medicine, University of Wales College of Medicine, Heath Park, Cardiff CF4 4XN, UK

Disturbed monoamine transmission has been implicated in schizophrenia.

We investigated a putative functional promoter polymorphism in the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene in Swedish schizophrenic patients (n=133) and control subjects (n=377).

In men, there was an association between the less efficiently transcribed alleles and schizophrenia (c2=4.01, df=1, p<0.05).

In women no significant differences were found. The present results support the involvement of the MAOA gene in schizophrenic men in the investigated population.

The results should be treated with caution because of lack of association in previous studies.

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