ABSTRACT
Objective To analyse the relationship between catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) activity and affective disorders, and explore the biological mechanism of the etiology of affective disorders.Methods The activities of erythrocytes COMT from 112 affective disorders and 120 normal control were measured with high performance liquid chromatography, all examined data were tested by SPSS 11.0v.Results COMT activity frequency distribution of patients group and control group are at the range of 2～23nmol/ml RBC/hr and 7～28nmol/ml RBC/hr respectively. The average activity of COMT in patients group and control group were (11.0±3.8) nmol/ml RBC/hr and (16.1±4.3) nmol/ml RBC/hr representatively. COMT activity in male and female patient were (11.2±3.7) nmol/ml RBC/hr and (10.6± 4.0) nmol/ml RBC/hr., male and female in control group were (16.5 ±4.6) nmol/ml RBC/hr and (15.4±3.9) nmol/ml RBC/hr, there were significant difference between patients group and control group and also between male and female (P <0.001).conclusion The activity of erythrocytes COMT in affective disorders is lower than normal population and suggested that the lower COMT activity of erythrocytes is associated with affective disorders.