Association study between reward dependence temperament and a polymorphism in the phenylethanolamine N-methyltransferase gene in a Japanese female population

Cloninger's theory is that specific dimensions of temperament are associated with single neurotransmitter systems, and it is based on neurophysiologic and genetic approaches to the human traits. It suggests that overexpression of temperament could cause psychiatric illness. Based on this theory, we examined the correlation between reward dependence (RD) trait, measured with the Temperament and Character Inventory, and 5 polymorphisms in genes of norepinephrine pathways, ADRB1, COMT, PNMT, SLC18A1, and SLC6A2, in 85 Japanese female nursing students. We found that rs3764351 in PNMT was significantly associated with RD on Fisher's exact test (P = .029, Pcorr = .236). When haplotype analysis was performed for rs3764351 and rs876493 polymorphisms in the 5′ flanking region of PNMT, 3 haplotypes were identified. Rs3764351 itself appeared to be correlated with RD in the present study of a specific population, although we could not demonstrate an association between RD and any of the haplotypes. Our findings have implications for the understanding of temperament using neurophysiologic approaches.