Influence of Val108/158Met COMT Gene Polymorphism on the Efficacy of Modified Electroconvulsive Therapy in Patients with Treatment Resistant Depression

Abstract

Depression is a common emotional disorder associated with increased risk of suicide and rate of disability. In this double-blinded control study, we tested the efficacy of modified electroconvulsive therapy (MECT) in patients with treatment resistant depression (TRD) using the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD). The total scores of HAMD were found to be significantly decreased after the treatment. The genotyping of catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) was carried out with polymerase chain reaction-based testing. Our results demonstrated that frequency of mutant COMT alleles in TRD patients was significantly higher than that of the controls indicating a correlation of the enzyme genotype to the occurrence of TRD. Moreover, the patients homozygous for wild-type COMT gene (G/G) were evidenced to be more sensitive to MECT treatment than those with an heterozygous mutant genotype (A/G).

The Genetics of Treatment-Resistant Depression: A Critical Review and Future Perspectives

“…COMT is responsible for one of the major catabolic pathways of monoamines. Variants in this gene were associated with increased risk of suicide in TRD (Schosser et al, 2012a), they were observed more frequently in TRD compared with healthy controls (Lin et al, 2015), and they may be associated with ECT response in TRD (Domschke et al, 2010). On the other hand, negative results were also reported (Malaguti et al, 2011; Fabbri et al, 2014).…”

Genetic mechanisms of electroconvulsive therapy response in depression

“…A study examining the functional COMT val158met polymorphism in 119 patients with TRD found that the enzymatically more active COMT val/val genotype carriers treated with ECT were more often responders than non-responders (Anttila et al, 2008). This finding was replicated in a sample of 100 Chinese patients undergoing ECT for TRD (Lin et al, 2014). Domschke et al (2010) also confirmed these findings in a sample of 104 patients with TRD, finding that the COMT 158 val allele was associated with a superior response to ECT in female Caucasian patients.…”

“…A study examining the functional COMT val158met polymorphism in 119 patients with TRD found that the enzymatically more active COMT val/val genotype carriers treated with ECT were more often responders than non‐responders (Anttila et al ., ). This finding was replicated in a sample of 100 Chinese patients undergoing ECT for TRD (Lin et al ., ). Domschke et al .…”

Effects of Electroconvulsive Therapy on Depression and Its Potential Mechanism

“…In short, in the elderly (Husain et al, 2004), psychotic symptom comorbidities (Husain et al, 2004), postpartum depression (Rundgren et al, 2018), shorter episode duration and more severe depressive symptoms (van Diermen et al, 2018), early depression alleviation (Birkenhager et al, 2019), lower NAA levels in the dACC at baseline (Njau et al, 2017), low genetic risk load (Foo et al, 2019), genetic or epigenetic modifications (Huuhka et al, 2007;Kleimann et al, 2015;Lin et al, 2015), and high baseline serum IL-6 levels (Kruse et al, 2018) and a serum MM-9 profile (Shibasaki et al, 2018) were more likely to benefit ECT recipients. Moreover, the subfield index of hippocampus and neural network plasticity (Abbott et al, 2014;Ota et al, 2015;van Waarde et al, 2015;Redlich et al, 2016;Cao et al, 2018;Nuninga et al, 2019) may provide precise evidence to predict the outcome.…”