A recent study in a small sample of patients with velo-cardio-facial syndrome who had bipolar affective disorder suggested that the Met (low activity) COMT allele might be associated with rapid-cycling in this population.
We hypothesize that either the low activity allele of catechol-O-methyltransferase is a risk factor for bipolar affective disorder in Chinese populations or is in linkage disequilibrium with a nearby susceptibility gene or polymorphism.