possible association between haplotypes of the fkbp5 gene and suicidal bipolar disorder, but not with melancholic depression and psychotic features, in the course of bipolar disorder

Anna Leszczyńska-Rodziewicz,1 Aleksandra Szczepankiewicz,2 Beata Narożna,2 Maria Skibińska,1 Joanna Pawlak,1 Monika Dmitrzak-Węglarz,1 Joanna Hauser11Psychiatric Genetics Unit, 2Laboratory of Molecular and Cell Biology, Department of Pulmonology, Pediatric Allergy and Clinical Immunology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, Poznan, PolandAbstract: We aimed to analyzed the association between polymorphisms of the FKBP5 (FK506 binding protein 5) gene and subtypes of bipolar disorder. In the study, we included 195 bipolar disorder patients with psychotic features, 129 bipolar patients with melancholic depression, and 156 bipolar patients with a history of suicidal attempts. We found weak association between the haplotypes of the FKBP5 gene and bipolar patients with suicidal attempts. We did not find an association between polymorphisms of the FKBP5 gene and bipolar disorder with psychotic features, nor with bipolar disorder with melancholic depression. Limitations of our study are the absence of data about previous trauma exposure and the small sample size of patients, which of course can lead to false-positive results, so further validation and replication of the present findings are still needed.Keywords: FKBP5 gene, bipolar disorder, melancholic depression, psychotic features, suicide attempts