Methods
Social functioning was assessed with the Personal and the Social Performance (PSP) scale in 732 patients (women 343), aged 36.5 ± 12.3 years, with an ICD-10 diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective psychosis. Firstly, genotyping was performed with HRM (High Resolution Melt) method using DNA samples extracted from patients’ venous blood samples by organic solvents and amplificated by PCR.
Secondly, all patients were stratified by the level of social functioning into two groups: “moderate and good” and “marked and poor”. Allele frequencies were aligned with the Hardy-Weinberg equation (р>0,05). Genotypes were calculated in each group of social functioning.
Results
СС allele CD38 (rs3796863) tended to be more frequent in “poor” performance group within a socially useful activity PSP scale. OXTR rs53576 GG allele was considerably more frequent in “poor” performance group within the interpersonal relations PSP scale.
Conclusion
It is, therefore, the first-time oxytocin pathway polymorphisms are found to be associated with social functioning in schizophrenia patients, with CD38 rs3796863 СС and OXTR rs53576 GG being risk allele.