Association Studies of DRD2 and COMT Gene Polymorphisms with Risperidone-induced Amenorrhea in Female Schizophrenia Patients

Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder that affects social function of patients. Clinical characteristics of schizophrenia are early onset age and prolonged disease course. With the extensive application of antipsychotics, there are significant improvements in the remission rate of psychotic symptoms such as impaired social function in schizophrenic patients. However, in recent years, disruption of endocrine system was observed in the patients especially for women with long-term use of antipsychotic drugs. It has been reported that antipsychotic drugs could lead to delayed and reduced menstruation or even life-long amenorrhea by blocking the dopamine receptors [1]. This adverse drug reaction has a broad impact on medication compliance and life quality in women with schizophrenia. Thus, this concern has become one of the main problems in the treatment of female psychiatric patients for many years. Therefore, more correlation studies should focus on the disrupted endocrine system and antipsychotic drugs.