Influence of the catechol-O-methyltransferase val158met genotype on amygdala and prefrontal cortex emotional processing in panic disorder

Domschke, Katharina; Ohrmann, Patricia; Braun, Miriam; Suslow, Thomas; Bauer, Jochen; Hohoff, Christa; Kersting, Anette; Engelien, Almut; Arolt, Volker; Heindel, Walter; Deckert, Jürgen; Kugel, Harald

doi:10.1016/j.pscychresns.2007.04.016

« Previous Next »Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Volume 163, Issue 1 , Pages 13-20, 30 May 2008

Influence of the catechol-O-methyltransferase val158met genotype on amygdala and prefrontal cortex emotional processing in panic disorder

Katharina Domschke
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 11, D-48143 Muenster, Germany
- This is to indicate that Katharina Domschke and Patricia Ohrmann contributed equally to this work and should therefore both be considered first authors.
Patricia Ohrmann
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 11, D-48143 Muenster, Germany
- This is to indicate that Katharina Domschke and Patricia Ohrmann contributed equally to this work and should therefore both be considered first authors.
Miriam Braun
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 11, D-48143 Muenster, Germany
Thomas Suslow
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 11, D-48143 Muenster, Germany
Jochen Bauer
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 11, D-48143 Muenster, Germany
Christa Hohoff
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 11, D-48143 Muenster, Germany
Anette Kersting
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 11, D-48143 Muenster, Germany
Almut Engelien
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 11, D-48143 Muenster, Germany
- IZKF-Research Group 4, IZKF Muenster, University of Muenster, Germany
Volker Arolt
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 11, D-48143 Muenster, Germany
Walter Heindel
- Department of Clinical Radiology, University Hospital of Muenster, Muenster, Germany
Jürgen Deckert
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Albert-Schweitzer-Str. 11, D-48143 Muenster, Germany
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Wuerzburg, Germany
- Corresponding author. Department of Psychiatry, University of Wuerzburg, Füchsleinstrasse 15, D-97080 Wuerzburg, Germany. Tel.: +49 931 20177000; fax: +49 931 20177020.
Harald Kugel
- Department of Clinical Radiology, University Hospital of Muenster, Muenster, Germany

Received 13 March 2006; received in revised form 19 March 2007; accepted 23 April 2007.

Abstract

Panic disorder is an anxiety disorder with an estimated heritability of up to 48%. The functional val158met polymorphism in the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene has been found to be associated with panic disorder and to influence limbic and prefrontal brain activation in response to unpleasant stimuli. In the present study, neuronal activation following emotional stimulation was used as an endophenotype and investigated for association with the COMT val158met polymorphism in panic disorder. Twenty patients with panic disorder were scanned by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging at 3 Tesla under visual presentation of emotional faces and genotyped for the COMT val158met polymorphism. In response to fearful faces, increased activation in the right amygdala was observed in patients carrying at least one 158val allele. Increased activation or less deactivation associated with the 158val allele was seen upon presentation of fearful, angry and happy faces in the orbitofrontal and ventromedial prefrontal cortex, respectively. Our data provide preliminary evidence for a role of the functional val158met COMT polymorphism in amygdala and prefrontal activation in response to emotional faces in panic disorder. This COMT variant might increase the vulnerability to panic disorder by modulating dopaminergic tonus in relevant brain regions and thus altering neuronal processing of anxiety-related emotional cues.

Keywords: Anxiety disorder, COMT, fMRI, Emotional faces, Endophenotype