Associations between the schizophrenia susceptibility gene ZNF804A and clinical outcomes in psychosis

• Published in: Translational psychiatry 2015-12, Vol.5 (12), p.e698-e698
• Main Authors: Wickramasinghe, A, Tulloch, A D, Hayes, R D, Chang, C-K, Broadbent, M, Di Forti, M, Murray, R M, Iyegbe, C, Stewart, R
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 45; 692/53/2422; 692/699/476/1333; 692/699/476/1799; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Behavioral Sciences; Biological Psychology; Clinical outcomes; Female; Genetic Predisposition to Disease - genetics; Genome-Wide Association Study - statistics & numerical data; Humans; Kruppel-Like Transcription Factors - genetics; London; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Middle Aged; Neurosciences; Original; original-article; Outcome Assessment (Health Care) - statistics & numerical data; Pharmacotherapy; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide - genetics; Psychiatry; Psychosis; Psychotic Disorders - genetics; Schizophrenia - genetics; Young Adult
• ISSN: 2158-3188; 2158-3188
• DOI: 10.1038/tp.2015.198

We sought to test the hypothesis that the rs1344706 A allele will be associated with worse clinical outcome in first-episode psychosis. A data linkage was set up between a large systematic study of first-episode psychosis and an electronic health-record case register at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust—a large provider of secondary mental-health care. A sample of 291 patients, who presented with a first psychotic episode (ICD10 diagnoses F20–29 or F30–33) and in whom the rs1344706 genotype had been assayed, were followed to examine the duration of mental-health in-patient care during the 2 years following first service contact, as a primary outcome. Secondary outcome measures were whether or not an in-patient episode occurred and the number of in-patient episodes during this period. A strong association was found between the number of rs1344706 A alleles and the cumulative duration of mental-health in-patient stay over the 2 years since initial presentation. In the 84.2% who experienced an in-patient episode during this period, the mean duration of admission was an additional 38 days for each A allele increment. Therefore, in addition to its potential role as a risk factor for psychosis, the ZNF804A rs1344706 A allele is associated with worse clinical outcome.