Association Study of Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Gene Polymorphisms and Body Weight Change in Schizophrenic Patients Under Long-Term Atypical Antipsychotic Treatment

Schizophrenic patients treated with atypical antipsychotics (AAPs) often develop excessive body weight gain, which may lead to further morbidity and poor treatment compliance. This study examined whether genetic variants in the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene may be associated with body weight change after AAP treatment. The study included 481 schizophrenic patients treated with clozapine ( n = 266), olanzapine ( n = 79), or risperidone ( n = 136) for an average of 49.2 ± 28.2 months. Three common single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of the BDNF gene were chosen as tagging SNPs. In single-marker-based analysis, the BDNF rs11030101-T homozygous genotype was found to be associated with significantly increased body weight gain ( P = 0.037). The BDNF Val66Met (rs6265) polymorphism was not found to be associated with body weight gain. Haplotype analysis further showed that the rs11030101-T-allele-related haplotype is also associated with increased body weight gain ( P = 0.047). Our findings suggest that there is a nominal association with rs11030101 but did not replicate the previously found relationship between the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism and body weight gain during long-term AAP treatment.