Neuropeptide Y (NPY) gene: Impact on emotional processing and treatment response in anxious depression

Received 18 May 2009; received in revised form 1 September 2009; accepted 28 September 2009. published online 26 October 2009.

Abstract

Neuropeptide Y (NPY) has been found to play a role in the pathomechanism of both anxiety and depression. Thus, NPY is a promising candidate in the investigation of the clinical phenotype of “anxious depression”.

Five NPY gene variants were investigated for an influence on antidepressant treatment response in a sample of 256 patients with depression. Additionally, NPY gene impact on amygdala activation during facial emotion processing was analyzed in a subsample of 35 depressed patients.

Particularly in anxious depression, the less active NPY rs16147 −399C allele conferred slow response after 2weeks and failure to achieve remission after four weeks of treatment. The rs16147 C allele was further associated with stronger bilateral amygdala activation in response to threatening faces in an allele-dose fashion.

The present results point towards a possible influence of functional NPY gene variation on antidepressant treatment response in anxious depression, potentially conveyed by altered emotional processing.

Keywords: Pharmacogenetics, Imaging genetics, Depression, Anxiety, NPY

a Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Muenster, Albert-Schweitzer-Strasse 11, D-48143 Muenster, Germany

b Dept. of Clinical Radiology, University of Muenster, Germany

c Dept. of Psychiatry, University of Wuerzburg, Germany

d Dept. of Psychiatry, James Cook University, Queensland, Australia

Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 251 8356601; fax: +49 251 8356612.

1 This is to indicate that both authors contributed equally to this work and therefore should both be considered first authors.

PII: S0924-977X(09)00236-3

doi:10.1016/j.euroneuro.2009.09.006

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