Further evidence for the association of GAL, GALR1 and NPY1R variants with opioid dependence.

Aim: Heroin addiction is a chronic, relapsing disease that has genetic and environmental, including drug-induced, contributions. Stress influences the development of addictions. This study was conducted to determine if variants in stress-related genes are associated with opioid dependence (OD). Patients & methods: One hundred and twenty variants in 26 genes were analyzed in 597 Dutch subjects. Patients included 281 OD in methadone maintenance with or without heroin-assisted treatment and 316 controls.

Results

Twelve SNPs in seven genes showed a nominally significant association with OD. Experiment-wise significant associations (p < 0.05) were found for three SNP pairs, through an interaction effect: NPY1R/GAL rs4691910/rs1893679, NPY1R/GAL rs4691910/rs3136541 and GALR1/GAL rs9807208/rs3136541.

Conclusion

This study lends more evidence to previous reports of association of stress-related variants with heroin dependence.