In addition, significant interaction effects between childhood abuse experiences and the COMT and MTHFR genetic variants on the development of male homosexuality were found.
In addition, a significant interaction between COMT genotype and physical abuse was associated with better executive function in Val homozygotes, relative to those of the same genotype with no history of abuse.
The results of the present study suggest that anger-trait level is influenced by the interaction between childhood abuse and functional polymorphism in the COMT gene.
In COMT Val(158)Val carriers, but not in Val/Met and Met/Met carriers, childhood sexual abuse and the cumulative number of SLEs were associated with lower BDHI sum scores (P < 0.05).
Further, the functional catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met polymorphism interacted significantly with total CTQ abuse scores to impact perceived dissociation.
A common functional polymorphism that results in a three- to four-fold difference in catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) enzyme activity has been related to psychiatric disorders such as ultra-ultra rapid cycling bipolar disorder, drug abuse and alcoholism (Lachman et al., 1996a; Karayiorgou et al., 1997; Vandenbergh et al., 1997; Papolos et al., 1998; Tiihonen et al., 1999).