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


METHODS
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.


RESULTS
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).


CONCLUSIONS
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.
Wasserman
Danuta
D
The National and the Stockholm County Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental Ill-Health (NASP), Dep, of the Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden. danuta.wasserman@ki.se
Geijer
Thomas
T
Sokolowski
Marcus
M
Rozanov
Vsevolod
V
Wasserman
Jerzy
J