COMT Val158Met variant and functional haplotypes associated with childhood ADHD history in women with bulimia nervosa

► First study to assess transmission of COMT variants in BN probands and their first-degree relatives, as well as to explore the possible role of COMT functional genotypes and haplotypes as defined by Nackley et al. (2006) in BN. ► We observed preferential transmission for the A allele of rs6269, the T allele of rs4633, the C allele of rs4818, and the Met allele of rs4680 to the affected offspring with BN. ► The medium-activity COMT haplotype was significantly overtransmitted to the BN probands. ► BN cases and healthy controls did not differ in terms of COMT genotype and haplotype frequencies. ► The Val158 variant of COMT rs4680 was significantly overrepresented whereas the medium-activity haplotype was significantly underrepresented among BN probands with a history of childhood ADHD.