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Possible evidence for a common risk locus for bipolar affective disorder and schizophrenia on chromosome 4p16 in patients from the Faroe Islands

Molecular Psychiatry volume 9, pages 93–98 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Patients with schizophrenia (n=11) and bipolar affective disorder (n=17) from the relatively isolated population of the Faroe Islands were genotyped for 34 polymorphic markers on chromosome 4 in a search for allelic association and haplotype sharing among distantly related patients. When considering bipolar patients only, there was no clearcut support for any region on chromosome 4. The two-marker segment D4S394–D4S2983 at 4p16.1 was, however, supported by a P-value of 0.0162. For patients with schizophrenia, there was reasonable support for 4p16.1 as marker D4S2281 (P=0.0019), a two-marker segment (D4S2281–D4S1605, P=0.0009) and a three-marker segment (D4S2923–D4S2928–D4S1582, P–0.0005) appeared to be associated with schizophrenia, with some alleles/haplotypes occurring with different frequencies in patients compared to controls. When combining both psychiatric disorders, chromosome 4p16.1 received further support from five partially overlapping two- and three-marker segments (D4S394–D4S2983, P=0.0039; D4S2281–D4S1605, P=0.0027 and D4S394–D4S2983–D4S2923, P=0.006; D4S2923–D4S2928–D4S1582, P=0.00007; D4S1582–D4S1599–D4S2281, P=0.005). Increased haplotype sharing in patients with schizophrenia and in the combined data set was partly supported by Fisher's exact test and tests based on the genealogy. Our study yields support for a common risk gene for schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder on the short arm of chromosome 4, as suggested by previous findings in the neighbouring Scottish population.

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Acknowledgements

We thank senior psychiatrist Aksel Bertelsen, Psychiatric Hospital in Aarhus, for thorough reading of medical records and reports for diagnostic evaluation. This work was supported by The Danish Medical Research Council (Grant Number 9601887); The Lundbeck Foundation (Grants Numbers 39/98 and 59/99); Puljen til styrkelse af Psykiatrisk forskning i Aarhus Amt. Psykiatrisk forsknings fond; Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, The Faroese Government; Research Fund of the Faroese Savings Bank, Torshavn, Faroe Islands; Danish Hospital Foundation for Medical Research, Region of Copenhagen, the Faroe Islands and Greenland.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychiatric Demography, Institute for Basic Psychiatric Research, Psychiatric Hospital in Aarhus, Aarhus University Hospital, Risskov, Denmark

    T D Als, O Mors & H Ewald

  2. Department of Clinical Biochemistry and Genetics, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark

    H A Dahl & T A Kruse

  3. Department of Biological Psychiatry, Institute for Basic Psychiatric Research, Psychiatric Hospital in Aarhus, Aarhus University Hospital, Risskov, Denmark

    T J Flint & H Ewald

  4. Department of Psychiatry, Amager Hospital, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark

    A G Wang

  5. Department of Psychiatry, Landssjúkrahusid (National Hospital), Torshavn, Faroe Islands

    A G Wang & M Vang

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Correspondence to T D Als.

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Als, T., Dahl, H., Flint, T. et al. Possible evidence for a common risk locus for bipolar affective disorder and schizophrenia on chromosome 4p16 in patients from the Faroe Islands. Mol Psychiatry 9, 93–98 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001393

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