Serotonin transporter polymorphism (5HTTLPR), severe childhood abuse and depressive symptom trajectories in adulthood

Timothy B Nguyen; Jane M Gunn; Maria Potiriadis; Ian P Everall; Chad A Bousman

doi:10.1192/bjpo.bp.115.000380

Serotonin transporter polymorphism (5HTTLPR), severe childhood abuse and depressive symptom trajectories in adulthood

BJPsych Open. 2015 Sep 22;1(1):104-109. doi: 10.1192/bjpo.bp.115.000380. eCollection 2015 Jun.

Authors

Timothy B Nguyen¹, Jane M Gunn², Maria Potiriadis³, Ian P Everall⁴, Chad A Bousman⁵

Affiliations

¹ , BS, MD, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
² , PhD, MBBS, Department of General Practice, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
³ , BAppSc, GDip Clin Epi, M Prim HlthCare, Department of General Practice, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
⁴ , BSC (Hons), MB ChB (Hons), PhD, DSc, FRCPsych, FRANZCP, FRCPath, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia, NorthWestern Mental Health, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia and Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia.
⁵ , BS, MPH, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia, Department of General Practice, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia, Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia and Centre for Human Psychopharmacology, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorne, Victoria, Australia.

Abstract

Background: Cross-sectional studies suggest that the serotonin transporter promoter region polymorphism (5-HTT gene-linked polymorphic region, 5HTTLPR) moderates the relationship between childhood abuse and major depressive disorder.

Aims: To examine whether the 5HTTLPR polymorphism moderates the effect childhood abuse has on 5-year depressive symptom severity trajectories in adulthood.

Method: At 5-year follow-up, DNA from 333 adult primary care attendees was obtained and genotyped for the 5HTTLPR polymorphism. Linear mixed models were used to test for a genotype × childhood abuse interaction effect on 5-year depressive symptom severity trajectories.

Results: After covariate adjustment, homozygous s allele carriers with a history of severe childhood abuse had significantly greater depressive symptom severity at baseline compared with those without a history of severe childhood abuse and this effect persisted throughout the 5-year period of observation.

Conclusions: The 5HTTLPR s/s genotype robustly moderates the effects of severe childhood abuse on depressive symptom severity trajectories in adulthood.

Declaration of interest: None.

Copyright and usage: © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2015. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.