Abstract
Patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) exhibit higher suicide rates than the general population. However, the molecular mechanism responsible for the high rate of suicidal behavior in SCZ remains poorly understood. MTHFR Ala222Val (C677T; rs 1801133) polymorphism has repeatedly demonstrated to play a pathological role in numerous mental disorders, but none of these studies focused on the susceptibility of suicidal behavior in SCZ. In the present cross-sectional study, we recruited 957 chronic inpatients with SCZ and 576 healthy controls to assess the psychopathological symptoms of SCZ and compare the frequency of the MTHFR Ala222Val genotype in both suicide attempters and non-attempters. Our results demonstrated no significant differences in MTHFR Ala222Val genotype and allele distributions between the SCZ patients and controls (p > 0.05), but showed a statistical significance in the distribution of Ala/Val genotype between suicide attempters and non-attempters (p < 0.05). Further logistic regression analysis showed that MTHFR Ala222Val genotype, psychopathological symptoms, number of cigarettes smoked per day and drinking status were related to suicide attempts in SCZ (p < 0.05). Our study demonstrated that MTHFR Ala222Val polymorphism and some clinical characteristics might confer susceptibility to suicide in patients with SCZ.
Highlights
Patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) exhibit higher suicide rates than the general population
We did not find any significant difference in the MTHFR Ala222Val polymorphism between the patients with SCZ and healthy controls, which was in accordance with a couple of previous studies[34,35,36], suggesting that the Ala222Val polymorphism of the MTHFR gene did not contribute to increased risk of SCZ in our Chinese samples
The MTHFR Ala222Val polymorphism appears to be weakly correlated with suicide attempts in SCZ
Summary
Patients with schizophrenia (SCZ) exhibit higher suicide rates than the general population. MTHFR Ala222Val (C677T; rs 1801133) polymorphism has repeatedly demonstrated to play a pathological role in numerous mental disorders, but none of these studies focused on the susceptibility of suicidal behavior in SCZ. Our results demonstrated no significant differences in MTHFR Ala222Val genotype and allele distributions between the SCZ patients and controls (p > 0.05), but showed a statistical significance in the distribution of Ala/Val genotype between suicide attempters and nonattempters (p < 0.05). Evidences suggest that overlapping genetic risk factors are associated with suicidal behavior and psychopathology. One study showed that MTHFR Val/Val genotype affected gray matter density and memory impairment in SCZ patients in a Chinese population[32] Taken together, these studies have suggested that the MTHFR gene polymorphisms, especially the MTHFR Val/Val genotype, may be involved in the psychopathology of suicidality in SCZ patients
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