Association Study between 2 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Estrogen Receptor 1 Gene and Korean Female Schizophrenic Patient

OBJECTIVES: Schizophrenia is equally distributed in both sexes. However, later-onset, milder psychopathology, and better outcome are associated with the females. This reason is thought to be partly due to the estrogen system. Recently, it was suggested that estrogen receptor 1(ESR1) gene polymorphisms might affect the expression of ESR1 and were associated with several psychiatric disorders. Thus, we investigated the association between two single nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs) in the ESR1 gene and Korean schizophrenic patients in this study. METHODS: Genotype, allele, and haplotype frequencies of the two SNPs(rs 2234693 and rs 2228480) were analyzed between 218 Korean controls and 158 Korean schizophrenic patients. Also, age of onset and negative symptom scale scores according to genotypes were analyzed in the patients with schizophrenia. RESULTS: There was a significant difference in allele frequencies of rs 2234693 between the schizophrenic patients and the controls(p=0.03). Genotype distributions(p=0.03) and allele frequencies(p=0.01) of rs 2234693 were significantly different between the female schizophrenic patients and the female controls. The frequency of TC-CC genotypes compared with TT genotype in the female schizophrenic patients was significantly higher than that in the female controls(OR=2.36). The mean age of onset in the schizophrenic patients with TC-CC genotypes was significantly lower than that in the patients with TT genotype. The frequency of rs 2234693C-rs 2228480G haplotype in the female schizophrenic patients was relatively higher than that in the female controls. CONCLUSIONS: These results of our study support the possibility that the ESR1 gene polymorphisms might be involved in the susceptibility of females to schizophrenia and play a role in sex difference of schizophrenia.

Animal Models in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry / 신경정신의학

In studying child and adolescent psychiatry (CAP), animal models are extremely useful to explore the pathogenesis of disorders or to experiment drugs as substitutes for the human body. Particularly in young children, the accuracy of their expression can be low and there are many restrictions in experiments directly upon the patients including difficulties in medication and tests. However, it is not easy to develop animal models because standards for diagnosis are phenomenological and based on behavioral descriptions. The biggest problem in research using animal models in CAP is that it is difficult to make representative models specific to each disorder. The present study reviewed articles about research with animal models in connection to disorders common in CAP such as autism , Tourette syndrome (TS), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and mental retardation (MR). Recent researches through animal models are mainly focused on anatomical studies on sites related to disorders and genetic studies. Although there have been many researches for autism, they still seem to be away from establishing representative models. For TS, it is not easy to make specific animal models because of the complexity of the syndrome, but animal models have been greatly helpful to find pathogenesis and develop remedies for TS. In ADHD, Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats (SHR) model is recognized as a fine model. With regard to MR, a majority of studies are gene researches related to known abnormal chromosomes. Throughout this review, authors recognized that only few articles have been published using animal models for CAP in Korea. We hope that research using animal models will be more activated in Korea.

Reliability and Validity of the Korean Version of the Scale to Assessment Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD-K) / 신경정신의학

OBJECTIVES: This study was conducted to evaluate the reliability and the validity of the Korean version of the Scale to Assessment Unawareness of Mental Disorder (SUMD-K). METHODS: The subjects were 55 schizophrenic patients between ages of 26 and 58 who were recruited from the psychiatric unit of the university hospital and the out-patient clinic. The SUMD-K and insight scale of PANSS were applied to the patients. RESULTS: The range of inter-rater (Spearman's rho) of the general items of SUMD-K were .97-. 98 on the current illness and .58-.98 on the past illness. The correlation coefficient between the sum and the general items of the SUMD-K showed high scores. The concurrent validity between SUMD-K and insight item of PANSS was high (scores between .59-.96). However, the reliability and the validity of the attribution items of symptoms showed low scores compared to the current symptoms. CONCLUSION: The SUMD-K was confirmed in its reliability and validity. It can be a useful clinician-rating scale for evaluating insight in schizophrenic patients as well as patients with other neuropsychiatric conditions.