Citation

Valderrama J, Miranda R. Psychiatry Res. 2017; 258: 481-487.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, Hunter College, City University of New York, NY, USA; Department of Psychology, The Graduate Center, City University of New York, NY, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.psychres.2017.08.092

PMID

28890225

Abstract

The present study examined the interaction between early life stress and 5-HTT genotypes in predicting two risk factors for suicidal behavior - the brooding subtype of rumination and impulsivity, in the form of negative urgency - over time. Furthermore, we examined early life stress, brooding, and impulsivity as predictors of suicidal ideation over time. Participants with and without a history of early life stress were genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and completed assessments assessing brooding and negative urgency at baseline and 6-month follow up. Early life emotional abuse was associated with negative urgency at follow-up. We found an indirect effect of early life emotional abuse on negative urgency through brooding among individuals with 5-HTT low expressing genotypes but not among individuals with 5-HTT high expressing genotypes. Further, a logistic regression analysis revealed that negative urgency was associated with higher odds (O.R. = 16.2) of reporting suicide ideation (versus no ideation) at follow-up. Our findings suggest that brooding and negative urgency may result from the interaction between early life emotional abuse and 5-HTT low expressing genotypes. Further research is necessary to understand how early life stress interacts with 5-HTT genotypes to confer risk for suicidal behavior through psychological mechanisms.

Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

Early life emotional abuse; Impulsivity; Rumination; Serotonin transporter; Suicidal ideation