1. ¹University of Tampere Medical School, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland
2. ²Department of Clinical Chemistry, Laboratory of Atherosclerosis Genetics, Centre for Laboratory Medicine, Tampere University Hospital, Tampere, Finland
3. ³Department of Psychiatry, Tampere University Hospital, Pitkäniemi, Finland
4. ⁴Department of Psychiatry, Kanta-Häme Central Hospital, Hämeenlinna, Finland

Correspondence: Dr S Anttila, Department of Psychiatry, Tampere University Hospital, Pitkäniemi 33380, Finland. E-mail: samia@koti.soon.fi

Received 18 February 2007; Revised 9 May 2007; Accepted 4 June 2007; Published online 14 August 2007.

Abstract

Several lines of evidence suggest that catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) may be associated with treatment response in depression. We conducted a study on 119 patients with treatment-refractory depression admitted consecutively for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). The COMT high/high genotype leads to a higher enzyme activity and thus lowers dopaminergic activity in the prefrontal cortex. In the present sample, those homozygous to high-active allele of COMT responded significantly more frequently to ECT.