Predisposition for borderline personality disorder with comorbid major depression is associated with that for polycystic ovary syndrome in female Japanese population

Satoshi Kawamura¹, Chihaya Maesawa², Koji Nakamura¹, Kazuhiko Nakayama¹, Michiaki Morita¹, Yohei Hiruma¹, Tomoyuki Yoshida³, Akio Sakai³, Tomoyuki Masuda^4
1Department of Psychiatry, Tokyo Jikei University school of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; ²Department of Tumor Biology, Division of Bioscience, center for Advanced Medical science, Iwate Medical University school of Medicine, Morioka, Japan; ³Department of Neuropsychiatry, Iwate Medical University school of Medicine, Morioka, Japan; ⁴Department of Pathology, Iwate Medical University school of Medicine, Morioka, Japan


Abstract: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common lifestyle-related endocrinopathy in women of reproductive age and is associated with several mental health problems. We examined the genotypic distributions of IRS-1 Gly972Arg and CYP11B2 -344T/C, which were previously described as influencing PCOS, and assayed the serum levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α), in a set of female patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD) with comorbid major depressive disorder (MDD) (n = 50) and age-matched control subjects (n = 100), to investigate the predisposition for BPD with MDD. The results showed that the patients were more frequently IRS-1 972Arg variant allele carriers (P = 0.013; OR 6.68; 95% CI = 1.30-34.43) and homozygous for the CYP11B2 -344C variant allele (P = 0.022; OR = 3.32; 95% CI = 1.18-9.35) than the control subjects. The IL-6 level was significantly higher in the patients than in the controls (P < 0.0001). There was no significant difference in the serum TNF-α level between patients with BPD with MDD and the healthy comparison group (P = 0.5273). In conclusion, the predisposition for BPD with MDD is associated with that for PCOS, in the female Japanese population. An elevated serum IL-6 level is considered to be a possible biomarker of BPD with MDD.

Keywords: borderline personality disorder, depression, polycystic ovary syndrome, genetic polymorphism, insulin resistance