Brief report Association of serum uric acid levels with emotional and affective temperaments T.M. Lorenzi, D.L. Borba, G. Dutra, D.R. Lara ⁎ Faculdade de Biociências, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Ipiranga, 6681-Pd12A, 90619-900 Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil article info abstract Article history: Received 20 February 2009 Accepted 22 May 2009 Available online 12 June 2009 Background: Temperament relates to emotions and the prevailing mood or affective temperament. Uric acid (UA) is the end-product of purine metabolism and has been associated with psychological features such as high energy/drive, positive affect, achievement, good performance, higher social status and leadership. Methods: 129 subjects (44 males, 85 females) completed with the Combined Emotional and Affective Temperaments Scale, serum UA levels and a general health questionnaire. Results: In the whole sample, serum UA levels were significantly correlated with disinhibition (r = 0.36, p <0.001) and drive (r = 0.25, p <0.01), but not with control, anger or any of the affective temperament scores. Among males, we found correlations at trend level (p > 0.05 and <0.07) for control (r = 0.27), irritable (r = 0.29) and hyperthymic (r = 0.27) affective temperaments. Among females, a significant correlation was found only with disinhibition (r = 0.34, p = 0.001). The top tertile of males (serum UA > 6.0 mg/ml, n =16) had significantly higher drive (29.9 ± 5.9 × 26.0 ± 3.6, p =0.01) and higher control at trend level (21.2± 3.1 × 19.3 ± 2.9, p = 0.054) than other males. Among women, the top tertile (serum UA > 4.0 mg/ml, n = 29) showed higher disinhibition scores (20.7 ± 4.9 × 17.9 ± 3.6, p < 0.01) and more frequent choices of hyperthymic (8/26 × 6/59, p = 0.023) and irritable temperaments (7/26 × 5/59, p =0.031) than the rest of the sample. Controlling for daily intake of meat and grains, which could lead to higher UA levels, did not change these results. Limitations: Small sample size for males. Conclusions: Externalized traits of temperament are associated with higher serum UA levels both in men and women. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Temperament Uric acid Emotion 1. Introduction Temperament relates to the emotional nature and the quality of the prevailing mood, being mostly inherited and relatively stable over time (Allport, 1961; Cloninger et al., 1993). Two of the most intensively studied temperament constructs in psychiatry are the model of affective temperaments by Akiskal (Akiskal et al., 2005), based on Kraepelin fundamental states, and the psycho- biological model by Cloninger (Cloninger et al., 1993) with a focus on behavior and basic emotions. Recently we have proposed an integration of emotional and affective temperament constructs with clinical (Lara et al., 2006), neurobiological and treatment implications (Lara and Akiskal, 2006). This model is based on the principle that activation (anger and drive/pleasure) and inhibi- tion (fear) are the two main emotional forces, which are integrated by the control system (attention and duty). Their interaction would result in the prevailing mood or affective temperaments, namely depressive, anxious, apathetic, cyclothy- mic, dysphoric, euthymic, irritable, labile, disinhibited and hyperthymic (Lara et al., 2006). Uric acid is the end-product of purine metabolism. Purines are essential for all human cells, but the CNS seems to be particularly affected in situations of purine metabolism dysfunction, such as Lesch–Nyhan disease. This disorder is due to impaired purine salvage, leading to hyperuricemia and reduced purine pool, with severe consequences such as self-mutilation, mental retardation Journal of Affective Disorders 121 (2010) 161–164 ⁎ Corresponding author. Fax: +55 51 33203612. E-mail address: drlara@pucrs.br (D.R. Lara). 0165-0327/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2009.05.023 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Affective Disorders journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jad