The D2 Dopamine Receptor and Tourette's Syndrome To the Editor.\p=m-\\p=m-\Agood deal of attention has recently been focused on the D2 relationship between the dopamine receptor (DRD2) and alcoholism. 1 Cloninger2 has shown that DRD2 may indeed be associated with, but not linked to, alcoholism. Now, Comings et al3 have extended the model of DRD2 as a modifier of severity not only of alcoholism but of other neuropsychiatric disorders as well, including attention-deficit disorder, autism, posttraumatic stress disorder, and Tourette's syndrome. As part of a linkage study of Tourette's syndrome,4 I had previously genotyped a sample of 14 families (N 115) with the same DRD2 DNA probe (\g=l\hD2G1) as used in other studies. Herein is presented a reevaluation ofthose genotyped data in the context of the Comings et al =

proposal. The prevalence of the Al allele of the Taq IDRD2 restriction fragment length polymorphism, as opposed to its frequency, is taken to be the percentage of individuals having either the AlAl or AlAZ genotype. Among 37 unrelated, married-in individuals in the Tourette's syndrome families, 14 (38%) were ei¬ ther Al Al or A1A2. Compared with the prevalence of 22% (34 of 158) among the nonalcoholic controls cited by Cloninger, this is a significant increase ( 2 4.3; =

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The D2 dopamine receptor and Tourette's syndrome.

The D2 Dopamine Receptor and Tourette's Syndrome To the Editor.\p=m-\\p=m-\Agood deal of attention has recently been focused on the D2 relationship be...
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