Dopamine-β-hydroxylase (DBH, EC 1.14.17.1) is an enzyme with implications in various neuropsychiatric and cardiovascular diseases and is a known drug target.
Several regulatory and structural variants in DBH associated with various neuropsychiatric, cardiovascular diseases and a few that may determine enzyme activity have also been identified.
Depression was univariately associated with homozygosity for the DBH gene 19 bp deletion allele (odds ratio [OR]=1.96, 95% confidence intervals [95% CI]=1.17-3.29, p=0.01), family history of depression (OR=3.86, 95% CI=1.85-8.06, p=0.0003), a composite measure of cardiovascular diseases (OR=1.96, 95% CI=1.11-3.47, p=0.02), cognitive impairment assessed by the Short Blessed Test (OR=3.88, 95% CI=1.29-11.64, p=0.02) and performance on the Animal Naming Task (OR=0.74, 95% CI=0.59-0.93, p=0.01).