Scientists at the National Institutes of Health's (NIH) National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) have identified a previously unknown gene variant that doubles an individual's risk for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The new functional variant, or allele, is a component of the serotonin transporter gene (SERT), site of action for the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) that are today's mainstay medications for OCD, other anxiety disorders, and depression.

"Improved knowledge of SERT's role in OCD raises the possibility of improved screening, treatment, and medications development for that disorder," said Ting-Kai Li, M.D., Director, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. "It also provides an important clue to the neurobiologic basis of OCD and the compulsive behaviors often seen in other psychiatric diseases, including alcohol dependence."

Approximately 2 percent of U.S. adults (3.3 million people) have OCD, the fourth most prevalent mental health disorder in the United States. Individuals with OCD have intrusive, disturbing thoughts or images (obsessions) and perform rituals (compulsions) to prevent or banish those thoughts. Many other individuals demonstrate obsessive-compulsive behaviors that do not meet OCD diagnostic criteria but alter the individuals' lives.

Drs. David Goldman, Chief, and Xianzhang Hu, Research Scientist, in NIAAA's Laboratory of Neurogenetics discovered the linkage aided by new functional analyses of the SERT genetic variant. The researchers first compared the genotypes of 169 OCD patients to those of 253 controls in a large U.S. patient population and found that the OCD patients were twice as likely to have the variant. Then they studied transmission and non-transmission of the variant in a Canadian population of 175 OCD parent-child trios (two healthy parents and a child with OCD) and found that the risk variant was twice as likely to be transmitted from a parent to a
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Contact: Ann Bradley
abradley@mail.nih.gov
301-443-3860
NIH/National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
29-Mar-2006

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