Objectives : We investigated the association of Val108/158Met polymorphism on catechol-O-methyl transferase (COMT) gene with smooth pursuit eye movement (SPEM) abnormality in Korean schizophrenia patients.
Methods : We measured SPEM function in 217 Korean schizophrenia patients (male 116, female 101) and divided them into two groups, one is a good SPEM function group and the other is a poor SPEM function group. Then we analyzed Val108/158Met polymorphism on COMT gene. We compared the differences of genotype and allele distributions of the polymorphism on COMT gene between the two groups.
Results : The natural logarithm value of signal/noise ratio (Ln S/N ratio) of the good SPEM function group was 4.39 ?0.33 (mean ?s.d.) and that of poor SPEM function group was 3.17 ?0.71. There were no statistically significant differences of age and male/female ratio between the two groups. There were no significant differences of genotype or allele distributions of the Val108/158Met polymorphism on COMT gene between the two schizophrenic groups.
Conclusions : The results suggest that Val108/158Met polymorphism on COMT gene is not related to SPEM function abnormality in schizophrenia.