Genetic Associations of Serotoninergic and GABAergic Genes in an Extended Collection of Early-Onset Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Trios.

OBJECTIVE

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a debilitating neuropsychiatric disorder whose etiology includes important genetic contributions. In a previous transmission disequilibrium study in which 75 complete trios were included, single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in serotoninergic and GABAergic genes were associated with early-onset OCD. Our aim was to assess those findings in an extended collection of early-onset OCD trios.

METHODS

A transmission disequilibrium test for SNPs in HTR1B (rs2000292), SLC18A1 (rs6586896), GAD1 (rs3791860), and GAD2 (rs8190748) was performed in a total of 101 early-onset OCD trios, from which 26 trios were newly recruited for the purpose of the present analysis.

RESULTS

All the SNPs were overtransmitted from parents to OCD probands (p < 0.012, significant after Bonferroni correction).

CONCLUSIONS

These results are consistent with the previous findings and constitute more evidence of the role of genetic factors related to serotoninergic and GABAergic pathways in the pathophysiology of early-onset OCD.