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A functional polymorphism of the µ-opioid receptor gene is associated with completed suicides

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Summary.

A recent linkage study suggested that a putative locus for suicidal behavior independent of psychiatric disease phenotypes lies at 5′ upstream of the µ-opioid receptor (OPRM1) gene. We explored an association between suicide and genetic variations of the OPRM1 using a case-control study of 183 completed suicides and 374 control subjects. We genotyped four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) including a common A118G SNP. The genotypic and allelic distributions of the A118G SNP were significantly different between the completed suicide and control groups (P = 0.014 and 0.039, respectively). A dominant model analysis of the A118G SNP showed an enhanced association with suicide (P = 0.0041, Odds ratio 0.575) and this significant association was observed with a logistic regression analysis that takes sex and age factors into account (P = 0.021). Our results raise the possibility that the A118G SNP of the OPRM1 gene is associated with suicide.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Psychiatry and Neurology, Department of Environmental Health and Safety, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan

    A. Hishimoto, H. Cui, K. Mouri, K. Maeda & O. Shirakawa

  2. Division of Legal Medicine, Department of Environmental Health and Safety, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, Kobe, Japan

    H. Nushida & Y. Ueno

  3. Department of Neuropsychiatry, Kinki University School of Medicine, Osaka, Japan

    O. Shirakawa

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  1. A. Hishimoto
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  2. H. Cui
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  3. K. Mouri
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  4. H. Nushida
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  5. Y. Ueno
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  6. K. Maeda
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  7. O. Shirakawa
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Correspondence to A. Hishimoto.

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Correspondence: Akitoyo Hishimoto, Division of Psychiatry and Neurology, Department of Environmental Health and Safety, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine, 7-5-1 Kusunoki-cho Chuo-ku, Kobe 650-0017, Japan

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Hishimoto, A., Cui, H., Mouri, K. et al. A functional polymorphism of the µ-opioid receptor gene is associated with completed suicides. J Neural Transm 115, 531–536 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-007-0853-y

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