Citation

Liu L, Wang L, Cao C, Cao X, Zhu Y, Liu P, Luo S, Zhang J. Anxiety Stress Coping 2018; 31(3): 318-327.

Affiliation

a Laboratory for Traumatic Stress Studies, CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology , Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing , People's Republic of China.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10615806.2017.1420174

PMID

29280387

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Prior studies have found that the serotonin transporter gene-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) interacts with trauma exposure to increase general risk for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, there is little knowledge about the effects of the interaction on distinct symptom clusters of PTSD. This study aimed to investigate the relation between the interaction of 5-HTTLPR and earthquake-related exposures and a contemporary phenotypic model of DSM-5 PTSD symptoms in a traumatised adult sample from China.

DESIGN: A cross-sectional design with gene-environment interaction (G × E) approach was adopted.

METHODS: Participants were 1131 survivors who experienced 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. PTSD symptoms were assessed with the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). The 5-HTTLPR polymorphism was genotyped with capillary electrophoresis (CE) in ABI 3730xl genetic Analyzer.

RESULTS: Although there was no significant interaction between 5-HTTLPR and traumatic exposure on total PTSD symptoms, respondents with the LL genotype of 5-HTTLPR who were highly exposed to the earthquake experienced lower intrusion and avoidance symptoms than those with the S-allele carriers.

CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that the 5-HTTLPR may have an important impact on the development of PTSD and add to the extant knowledge on understanding and treating of posttraumatic psychopathology.

Language: en

Keywords

5-HTTLPR genotype; DSM-5; PTSD; gene-environment interaction; phenotypic models