%0 Journal Article
%T CLOCK is suggested to associate with comorbid alcohol use and depressive disorders
%A Louise K Sj£¿holm
%A Leena Kovanen
%A Sirkku T Saarikoski
%A Martin Schalling
%A Catharina Lavebratt
%A Timo Partonen
%J Journal of Circadian Rhythms
%D 2010
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1740-3391-8-1
%X 32 SNPs in 19 circadian clockwork related genes were analyzed using DNA from 76 individuals with comorbid depression and AUD, 446 individuals with AUD and 517 healthy controls with no psychiatric diagnosis. The individuals participated in a nationwide health examination study, representative of the general population aged 30 and over in Finland.The CLOCK haplotype TTGC formed by SNPs rs3805151, rs2412648, rs11240 and rs2412646, was associated with increased risk for comorbidity (OR = 1.65, 95% CI = 1.14-2.28, P = 0.0077). The SNPs of importance for this suggestive association were rs2412646 and rs11240 indicating location of the functional variation in the block downstream rs2412648. There was no indication for association between CLOCK and AUD.Our findings suggest an association between the CLOCK gene and the comorbid condition of alcohol use and depressive disorders. Together with previous reports it indicates that the CLOCK variations we found here may be a vulnerability factor to depression given the exposure to alcohol in individuals having AUD.Depression, alcohol abuse or dependence (AUD), as well as other affective disorders and substance use disorders (SUD), co-occur in the general population more frequently than expected by chance [1,2]. Approximately 80% of individuals with AUD report symptoms of depression and 25-40% of the people suffering from depression also report drinking problems [3]. The comorbidity of depression and AUD complicates the treatment and can alter the prognosis [3,4]. Furthermore, both depression and AUD increase the risk of suicide. Hence, having both depression and AUD is more severe than having just one of the disorders and it often leads to greater impairment [5,6].A number of hypotheses have been proposed to explain the comorbidity between depression and AUD and answer to whether we are dealing with one or two independent and overlapping disorders. The comorbidity could be due to shared risk factors or highly correlated risk facto
%U http://www.jcircadianrhythms.com/content/8/1/1