Genome-wide association studies suggest that rs1064395in the neurocan gene (NCAN) is a potential risk factor for bi-polar disorder (BPD), and further replication analyses inlarger independent samples are needed. We herein ana-lyzed rs1064395 in a Han Chinese sample of 1,146 BPD cas-es and 2,031 controls, followed by a meta-analysis of BPDsamples from worldwide populations including a total of15,318 cases and 91,990 controls. The meta-analysis foundthat rs1064395 showed a genome-wide significant associa-tion with BPD (p = 4.92 × 10 –9 , OR = 1.126 for the A allele),although it did not reach the significance level in the HanChinese sample (p = 0.415, OR = 1.070 for the A allele). Wealso examined the association between the single nucleo-tide polymorphisms and major depressive disorder (MDD)given the presumed genetic overlap between BPD andMDD, and rs1064395 was also associated with MDD (p =0.0068, OR = 1.067 for the A allele) in a meta-analysis of14,543 cases and 14,856 controls. Our data provide furtherevidence for the involvement of NCAN in the genetic sus-ceptibility to BPD and also implicate its broader role in ma-jor mood disorders.