Family based association study of pediatric bipolar disorder and the dopamine transporter gene (SLC6A3).

The dopamine transporter gene (SLC6A3) is a compelling candidate for pediatric bipolar disorder because (a) it has been associated with ADHD, (b) bipolar comorbidity with ADHD has been hypothesized to be an etiologically distinct familial subtype (c) blockade of the dopamine transporter with psychostimulants can induce mania in susceptible individuals and (d) previous studies have implicated the gene in bipolar disorder in adults. We conducted a family-based association study of SLC6A3 in 170 affected offspring trios defined by a child (12.9 +/- 5.3 years of age)with DSM-IV Bipolar-I disorder. Twenty-eight tag SNPs were chosen from the CEU (European) population of the International HapMap project (www.hapmap.org). Results indicated nominally positive association for 4 SNPs (rs40184, rs11133767, rs3776512, and rs464049), but only rs40184 survived correction for multiple statistical comparisons (P = 0.038). This is the first examination of the association with SLC6A3 and bipolar disorder in children and, like previous findings in adults with bipolar disorder, we found evidence of association with SNPs in the 3' region of the gene. These data provide suggestive evidence supporting a role for SLC6A3 in the etiology of pediatric bipolar disorder.