Department of Psychiatry, Neurogenetics Section, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, University of Toronto, ON, Canada.
Aggress Behav. 2013 Jan;39(1):45-51. doi: 10.1002/ab.21448. Epub 2012 Sep 12.
The etiology of childhood-onset aggression (COA) is poorly understood, but early COA can be considered as a strong risk factor for adult delinquency and criminal behavior. Callous-unemotional (CU) traits have been proposed as a developmental model of antisocial behavior. Catechol O-methyltransferase (COMT) has been associated with aggression, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and other psychiatric disorders. We report an association study between COMT single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), childhood aggression, and the CU trait in our sample of 144 children with scores at or exceeding the 90th percentile on the aggression subscale of the parent-reported Child Behavior Checklist and the Teacher's Report Form. The genotype analysis of rs6269 showed nominally significant association (P = .019) and rs4818 showed a trend (P = .064) with COA. Trends were observed for rs6269 and rs4818 with CU scores (P < .10) as well. The analyses stratified by ADHD, or gender showed no significant results. This is the first report to our knowledge evaluating COMT SNPs with the phenotype of high aggression in children with a possible role for the COMT marker in CU traits. Given the importance of CU traits in antisocial behavior, further investigation of COMT is warranted.
儿童期起病的攻击行为（COA）的病因尚不清楚，但早期 COA 可被视为成年犯罪和犯罪行为的一个强烈危险因素。冷酷无情（CU）特征已被提出作为反社会行为的一种发展模型。儿茶酚-O-甲基转移酶（COMT）与攻击行为、注意力缺陷/多动障碍（ADHD）和其他精神疾病有关。我们报告了在我们的 144 名儿童样本中，COMT 单核苷酸多态性（SNP）与攻击性、CU 特征之间的关联研究，这些儿童的攻击性子量表的分数在父母报告的儿童行为检查表和教师报告表上达到或超过第 90 百分位数。rs6269 的基因型分析显示出名义上的显著关联（P =.019），rs4818 则显示出趋势（P =.064）与 COA 相关。rs6269 和 rs4818 与 CU 评分也呈现出趋势（P <.10）。根据 ADHD 或性别进行分层分析，没有显示出显著的结果。这是我们所知的第一个评估 COMT SNP 与儿童高攻击性表型的报告，COMT 标志物可能在 CU 特征中发挥作用。鉴于 CU 特征在反社会行为中的重要性，进一步研究 COMT 是有必要的。
