title: The association of the D2S2944 124 bp allele with recurrent early onset major depressive disorder in women.
abstract: Major depressive disorder (MDD) and substance use disorders (SUD) are complex behavioral disorders with 40-50% heritability. Recently, Zubenko and colleagues reported that the 124 bp allele of D2S2944, a tetranucleotide repeat marker on 2q35, is strongly associated with recurrent, early onset MDD (RE-MDD) and alcohol use disorders in women. To test this hypothesis, we examined the association of the 124 bp allele in a subset of 171 adoptees from the Iowa Adoption Studies, a population with high rates of MDD and SUD. We report that in our population, the 124 bp allele significantly associated with RE-MDD in women. There was slight evidence of an increased of SUD in women with the 124 bp allele with the rate of cannabis use disorders reaching statistical significance (P < 0.04) before correction for multiple comparisons. Given the history of prior studies implicating 2q35 as a locus encoding vulnerability to co-morbid alcoholism and depression, these findings strongly suggest that sequence variation conveying increased susceptibility to MDD and possibly SUD is in close proximity to D2S2944.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1000, USA. robert-philibert@uiowa.edu
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Philibert
authors.forename: Kristin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Caspers
authors.forename: Douglas
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Langbehn
authors.forename: Edward P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Troughton
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Yucuis
authors.forename: Harinder K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Sandhu
authors.forename: Remi J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Cadoret
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002889:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 2; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005819:Genetic Markers; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers