The serotonin 1A receptor C(-1019)G polymorphism in relation to suicide attempt

• Published in: Behavioral and brain functions Vol. 2; no. 1; p. 14
• Main Authors: Wasserman, Danuta, Geijer, Thomas, Sokolowski, Marcus, Rozanov, Vsevolod, Wasserman, Jerzy
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 20.04.2006; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Medicin och hälsovetenskap
• ISSN: 1744-9081; 1744-9081
• DOI: 10.1186/1744-9081-2-14

Serotonergic neurotransmission has been implicated in suicidal behavior. Association between suicidal completers and a regulatory C(-1019)G polymorphism (rs6295) in the serotonin 1A receptor (HTR1A) gene was previously reported, whereas a following study showed no association in a sample of suicide attempters. The involvement of the implicated G-allele of the 5-HTR1A C(-1019)G polymorphism (rs6295) was analyzed with the transmission disequilibrium test (TDT) in a sample of 272 suicide attempter families. No overtransmission of the G-allele was found in the entire sample of suicide attempters (p = 0.1460; n = 272 trios). However, a strong trend for overtransmission of the G-allele was observed in a sub-sample selected for a high level of previous traumatic and/or stressful life events prior to the suicide attempt (p = 0.0630, two-tail; n = 94 trios). The current results show that variation at the rs6295 polymorphism of the HTR1A gene is not associated with suicide attempts generally. However, the results indicate a possible role of the G-allele in suicidal behavior in connection with high exposure to traumatic and/or stressful life events, which is in need of future investigation.