SCN8A as a novel candidate gene associated with bipolar disorder in the Han Chinese population

Abstract

Background: Bipolar disorder (BPD) is a common, severe and recurrent psychiatric disorder. It has been suggested that BPD patients have a higher risk of suicide than patients with any other psychiatric illnesses. A recent study found that suicide attempt was associated with the SCN8A gene, which has been mapped close to one of the BPD susceptibility loci. Thus, SCN8A is likely to be a candidate gene for BPD. Methods: In this study, three SNPs (rs1601012, rs303810, rs60637) were analyzed in 506 bipolar patients and 507 controls of Han origin. Results: We found that two individual SNPs showed statistically significant differences between cases and controls in both allele and genotype distribution, but only rs303810 was still significant in allele distribution (p = 0.0164) after correction. No obvious linkage disequilibrium or haplotypes were observed among these SNPs. Conclusion: Our results indicate that SCN8A may be a potential susceptibility gene for bipolar disorder in the Han Chinese population. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.