Review of dopamine transporter gene polymorphisms in major depressive disorder

Abstract

1.Introduction. Given the latest epidemiological data on depression and suicide, as well as the existence of some hypotheses that dopamine system dysfunction is involved in depression, it was necessary to review and summarize the latest studies in the literature. 2.Materials and methods. Using the PubMed database, 8 clinical studies on dopamine transporter gene and depression published before April 2018 were selected. 3.Results. In the selected studies, 3465 subjects were included, of which 2527 were patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder and 938 healthy subjects were included in the control groups. Half of the studies included also studied the polymorphisms of other genes (eg DRD2, SLC6A2, COMT, ABC1, CREB1 and others). 4.Discussions. The results of these studies are not sufficient to support the involvement of dopamine transporter gene polymorphisms in depression. Several multicenter studies involving several patient samples are needed to draw a clear conclusion.