Neuroacanthocytosis syndromes are mainly comprised of two diseases: 
chorea-acanthocytosis (ChAc) and McLeod syndrome (MLS). There is a high 
incidence of psychiatric disorders such as mood disorder and schizophrenia among 
neuroacanthocytosis patients. We hypothesized that 
neuroacanthocytosis-related-genes might be associated with susceptibility to 
these psychiatric disorders. We performed a comprehensive mutation screen of 
VPS13A and XK, the gene responsible for ChAc and MLS, respectively, in 85 mood 
disorder subjects and XK in 86 schizophrenia subjects and compared the variants 
to 100 or more control alleles. We also performed copy number variation (CNV) 
analysis in 72 mood disorder subjects and 86 schizophrenia subjects. We 
identified three non-synonymous, two synonymous and six intron variants in mood 
disorder subjects and a novel GAT triplet repeat polymorphism in VPS13A. By CNV 
analysis, we identified a heterozygous exon 60-61 deletion in VPS13A in one mood 
disorder subject. We identified one non-synonymous and one intron variant in 
mood disorder and schizophrenia subjects, respectively, in XK. The presence of a 
pathogenic mutation or a potentially functional variant in mood disorder or 
schizophrenia subjects suggests that neuroacanthocytosis-related-genes might be 
involved in the pathogenesis of these psychiatric disorders.