COMT polymorphisms in impulsively violent offenders with antisocial personality disorder

OBJECTIVE: The relationship between catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) polymorphisms and violent behaviour was tested in highly selected group of non-psychotic violent offenders. METHODS: We conducted an association study comparing 47 male repeatedly sentenced for impulsive violent attacks diagnosed with Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD) with 43 healthy male controls matched on education. Three COMT polymorphisms were analysed: COMT Val(158)Met and COMT Ala(146)Val on exon 4, and untranslated polymorphism on the 611, exon, at the regulatory region of the COMT gene with deletion-insertion character del/C. RESULTS: Logistic regression analysis revealed that while Val(158)Met is not associated with violence in APD, another COMT polymorphism - COMT Ala(146)Val is more frequent among violent offenders with APD (p=0.017). CONCLUSIONS: To conclude, our findings provide further Support that COMT is a modifying gene that plays a role in determining interindividual variability in the proclivity for violent behaviour in subjects without major mental disorder.