Analysis of intensive physical activity, alexithtmia COMT Vall108/158 met gene polymorphism

Alexithymia is characterized by a difficulty describing and identifying emotions. Intense training is associated with alexithymic behavior. Local depletion of dopamine in the frontal cortex results to the emotional impairments of alexithymia. The catecol O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene is important for the degradation of the dopamine and its polymorphism at codon 158 (COMT Val108/158Met) is related with dopaminergic activity. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between intense training, COMT Val108/158Met gene polymorphism and alexithymia.Eighteen women and 77 men, totally 95 subjects were included. Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) questionare, which was adapted in Turkish by Dereboy for reliability and validity, was used to evaluate alexithymia. COMT gene Val108/158Met polymorphism has been determined using polymerase chain reaction (PRC) method.The mean age of the participants was 21,98 years (ranged 13-46 years). Fifteen (15,8%) subjects were evaluated alexithymic and 80 (84,2%) non-alexithymic according to TAS. COMT Vall08/158 Met gene polymorphism was as follows: 17 (17,9%) Met/Met, 48 (50,5%) Val/Met, 30 (31,6%) Val/Val. COMT gene polymorphism was not correlated with age and gender. There was no statistically significance between training intensity, COMT Vall08/158 Met gene polymorphism, and alexithymia (p>0,05). However 60% of alexithymic subjects have trained intensively and only 6,7% have light trained. Intensive and light training rates for non-alexithymic athletes were 46,3% and 20%, respectively. Val/val and met/met genotyping rates for athletes engaged in intensive training were 32,6% and 29,3%.In conclusion, there is no significant relationship in the evaluation of TAS scores, COMT gene polymorphism and training intensity. The relation between alexithymia and sports, influenced by genetic, psychologic, and enviromental factors should be considered as a pioneer of scientific researches in this area.