Ashraf Mf, Noreen S, Akhtar N, Faheem A, Ali R, Ali S, Rakha A.
Allelic Frequency of MAO a Gene among Convicted Offenders and Diagnosed Cluster B Trait Psychiatric patients.
Biomedica Jan ;35(3):142-7.

Background and Objectives: The MAOA-uVNTR polymorphism is known for its association with aggressive impulsive behaviors. A case-control association study is conducted to investigate the influence of the allelic variants of the MAOA gene on tendency to violent behavior. Methods: Fifty-eight psychiatric patients, 68 convicted and 90 healthy control subjects, were included. MAOA-uVNTR genotyped at the promoter region. Variation of six alleles i.e. 2.5, 3, 3.5, 4, 4.5, 5-repeats was investigated. Allele distributions of MAOA-uVNTR in control, convicted and psychiatric samples was calculated. Results: Statistically significant differences were observed in genotypic frequencies among control, convicted and psychiatric males. Intergroup comparison showed that allele variant 3, 3.5, 4 and 5-repeats were found significant in control group while applying Pearson`s chi-square test (?2). A significant difference was observed when comparing the 5-repeat allele frequency in psychiatric patients with control (p = 0.005), suggesting a possible association with aggression in this group. Odds ratio > 1 indicated more risk of aggression towards psychiatric as compared to control. Conclusion: It is concluded that both high and low activity alleles of the MAOA-uVNTR 30-bp polymorphism are correlated with antisocial behavior both in offenders and psychiatric patients.

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