Association between three functional polymorphisms of dopamine D2 receptorgene and tardive dyskinesia in schizophrenia

The dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) gene is considered one of the candidate gen es contributing to the development of tardive dyskinesia (TD). In the prese nt study, we investigated the genetic association between three functional polymorphisms (Ser311Cys, -141C Ins/Del and TaqI A) in the DRD2 gene and TD (200 patients with schizophrenia: 44 with TD and 156 without TD). No signi ficant difference in the allelic and genotypic distribution between patient s with TD and those without TD was observed. However, we found a slightly s ignificant association between the -141C Ins/Del polymorphism and the total Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS) score (P = 0.037). The signific ant association between the -141C Ins/Del polymorphism. and the total AIMS score did not remain after the regression analysis was taken into account ( P=0.14). Our results suggest that that three functional polymorphisms in DR D2 may not play a major role in the occurrence of TD. (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.