Journal of International Psychiatry

Objective many studies have reported that COMT Val158Met polymorphism is associated with major depressive disorder(MDD), and the results are contradictory. We conducted a meta-analysis of the existing literature to explore the impact of COMT Val158Met polymorphism on the pathogenesis of MDD, especially race.Methods we search CNKI, WanFang Data, VIP and PubMed from January 2010 to February 2020. Among the 406 articles searched, 11 studies were included, including 1618 patients with depression and 1292 healthy controls.The odds ratios (ORs), 95% confidence intervals(95%CI) and heterogeneity were calculated in four genetic models.and sensitivity and publication bias analyses were performed to identify the reliability of the results.Results In the absence of heterogeneity or publication bias between studies, there was no association between COMT gene rs4680 polymorphism and depression in the total sample, but in East Asian population，AG+AA vs GG(OR=1.29,95%CI=1.06-1.56,P=0.01)、Caucasian population AA vs AG+GG(OR=0.73, 95%CI= 0.55-0.96,P=0.03).Conclusion AG or AA is a risk factor for depression in East Asian population, while AA is a protective factor in Caucasian population. COMT Val158Met polymorphism is a susceptible factor of MDD, and its effects are different in different ethnic groups. Gene-gene and gene-environment interactions jointly promote the risk of depression.

Major depressive disorder；COMT；Polymorphism；meta-analysis