Abstract
OBJECTIVES: In this study, we aimed to examine the NPY gene polymorphism in patients with panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder and to investigate the relationship between clinical variables and the NPY receptor gene polymorphisms.
METHODS: Twenty nine patients with panic disorder (PD) and sixty four patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) were able to complete the study. A total of 11 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) encoding the NPY Y1, Y2 and Y5 receptors were investigated.
RESULTS: There was a genotype-based difference in five SNPs [namely, NPY Y1 (rs7687423, rs4691075), NPY Y2 (rs12507396, rs1047214, rs11728843), NPY Y5 (rs11946004)] of the patients in the anxiety disorder group when compared with the control group. The scores of the Beck-A Scale were higher in the patients that had CC genotype in the rs4691075 and rs1047214, and the ASI-3 scores were higher in the patients with CC genotype in the region of rs4691075. Additionally, the regression analysis demonstrated that having the GG genotype of rs7687423 increased the risk for anxiety disorder by 65.8 fold as compared to the AA genotype.
CONCLUSION: Our findings support an association between NPY and anxiety disorders. Furthermore, our results are consistent with the results of the previous studies discussing the role of NPY gene polymorphism in anxiety disorders in the literature. However, the small size of sample limits the generalization of the results. Further studies are needed on this topic and conducting studies with larger samples in the future will increase the validity of the results.

Key words: Neuropeptide Y, polymorphism, panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder