Marit Haram will defend her PhD thesis on June 01, 2017

Title: The relationship between oxytocin pathway genes and personality traits and psychosis characteristics

Marit Haram

Official announcement: Disputas: Marit Haram

Thesis summary

Psychotic disorders and personality traits are complex and heterogeneous in their nature, and several contributing biological and environmental factors are involved. Based on a rich literature from animal studies and clinical trials, several hypotheses of oxytocin’s role in these features and potential therapeutic effect are generated. The endogenous oxytocin system is however little explored.

The overall aim of the current PhD work was to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms located on genes regulating oxytocin; OXT, OXTR, AVP and CD38, which could lead to deficits in features that are important for social functioning in patients with psychotic disorders. We investigated the association between oxytocin pathway polymorphisms and personality traits, specific psychopathological features and amygdala activation during affective face perception, with possible implications for the understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms.

There was a significant association between symptoms of emotional withdrawal and the A allele in rs53576 located on the gene coding for the oxytocin receptor. In participants with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, the rs237902 G allele was associated with low amygdala activation, and interaction analyses showed that this association was disorder specific as there were no associations between oxytocin receptor polymorphisms and amygdala activation in the total sample, among patients with affective spectrum disorders or healthy controls. There were no associations between oxytocin pathway genes and personality traits in healthy subjects or between oxytocin pathway gene variants and suspiciousness/persecutory delusions, hostility or passive/apathetic social withdrawal, or a diagnosis of psychotic disorder.

Taken together, our findings indicate that oxytocinergic signaling is involved in some aspects of social functioning in patients with psychotic disorders, but is unlikely to explain most of the biological variance involved.  

 

Published May 18, 2017 10:32 AM - Last modified Oct. 27, 2017 12:45 PM