Warrior/Worrier: Beyond the Cliche

Many practitioners look at their client’s COMT status to help them understand how they respond to stress or addiction. While the terms “Warrior” or “Worrier” are often attributed to different COMT results, there are some interesting nuances to COMT results that provide a better understanding of how our environment interacts with this particular gene, namely in the areas of: creativity, cognitive flexibility and sleep quality. 

But first let’s take a step back.

COMT (catechol –o-methyl transferase) helps the body break down products in the brain, specifically the prefrontal cortex part of the brain, called catecholamines. There are three genetic variations in the gene that codes for the COMT enzyme. Some people have the fast variant (val/val) leading to lower dopamine levels; others have the slow variant (met/met) creating higher dopamine levels and many people have the “goldilocks” variant (val/met) yielding a middle range of dopamine levels. People who have the fast variant will break down their catecholamines 3-5x faster than people with the slow variant (1). Conversely, people with the slow variant break down their dopamine 40% slower than the fast variant (2). Of importance, estrogen can assert an even greater slowing effect (~30% reduction) on the COMT enzyme (3).

Creativity: 

Although dopamine is usually associated with our reward and motivation cycle, researchers have found that higher levels of dopamine in the prefrontal cortex can help individuals “...generate many different ideas about a topic in a short period of time (divergent thinking), a key aspect of creativity.” More specifically, the study found that people who have more dopamine in their prefrontal cortex, AKA people with the slow variant (met/met), have increased creativity compared to individuals with the fast variant (val/val) (5).

While these individuals with the slow variant may be more prone to acutely feeling stress, they tend to be more creative and perform better in cognition related tasks. Of note, many atypical antipsychotics, which block dopamine (Abilify, Zyprexa, Seroquel, Risperdal, etc), have been shown to reduce creativity (6).

Cognitive Flexibility: 

Research has consistently found dopamine, specifically dopamine levels in the prefrontal cortex helps govern executive function. Executive function includes applications such as focus, time management, attention, multitasking, etc (7) There are two aspects to executive function: cognitive stability (the ability to stay on task) and cognitive flexibility (the ability to “...adapt, update, shift between informational states”). 

Researchers observed that individuals with the fast COMT variant, and therefore less dopamine in the prefrontal cortex, had greater cognitive flexibility than people with the slow COMT variant. In fact, individuals with the fast COMT variant could switch between two different, but predictable tasks faster and required less mental reconfiguration. (8)

Sleep: 

Dopamine is believed to play a significant role in our sleep/wake cycle through dopaminergic neurons located in specific parts of our brain. These neurons affect the sleep/wake cycle through their release of dopamine and how they interact with serotonergic, cholinergic, adrenergic, glutaminergic, orexinergic neurons. The amount of dopamine available in the prefrontal cortex is governed by COMT (9) 

Individuals with the slow COMT enzyme have higher and faster alpha wave frequency during wakefulness, REM and NREM sleep, which is thought to come from higher levels of dopamine. This combination can lead to improved cognitive and executive function during the day as well as being less susceptible to the effects of sleep deprivation (10). Of additional note, some research suggests both the slow and fast COMT variants are more prone to sleeping in or increasing their sleep time on non-work days.  Interestingly, there was no change with heterozygote variants (mid-speed COMT variant). (11)   

Another application of the role COMT plays in sleep is the creation of sleep spindles. Sleep spindles are momentary spikes of ECG activity during NREM (non REM) sleep or phase 2 sleep. Sleep spindles play a critical role in cognition and neuroplasticity, and they help shield the brain cortex from stimuli and memory development. The amount of dopamine found in the prefrontal cortex appears to impact spindle density and amplitude. Therefore, individuals with the slow COMT variant were found to have greater sleep spindle density and height. Because phase 2 sleep helps with memory storage, researchers suspect that this feature of the slow COMT variant may help individuals with tasks that take greater cognitive focus (12).

In conclusion, the next time one of your patients bemoans his/her COMT status, they can be reminded of the gifts they have been given and the various places they can harness their inner COMT super powers!

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