Search for association between suicide attempt and... : Psychiatric Genetics (original) (raw)

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Search for association between suicide attempt and serotonergic polymorphisms

Geijer, T.a; Frisch, A.b; Persson, M.-L.a,c; Wasserman, D.a; Rockah, R.b; Michaelovsky, E.b; Apter, A.d; Jönsson, E. G.e; Nöthen, M. M.f; Weizman, A.d

a_National and Stockholm County Council Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental III-health, National Institute for Psychosocial Factors and Health and Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden;_b_Felsenstein Medical Research Center, Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tikva, and Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel;_c_Department of Clinical Neuroscience and Family Medicine, Section of Psychiatry, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden;_d_Geha Psychiatric Hospital, Rabin Medical Center, Petah-Tikva, and Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel;_e_Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden;f_Institute of Human Genetics, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

Correspondence to T. Geijer PhD, National Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention of Mental III-health, P.O. Box 230, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden

Received 10 June 1999; accepted 18 June 1999

Abstract

Serotonergic neurotransmission has been implicated in suicidal behavior. Polymorphisms in the genes coding for tryptophan hydroxylase, serotonin receptor 2A and serotonin transporter were investigated in a sample of suicide attempters ( n = 165) and healthy control subjects ( n = 99). No significant differences were found for any of the investigated polymorphisms. Neither did any significant differences emerge in comparison with control subjects when the suicide attempters were grouped into different diagnostic categories: unipolar disorder ( n = 45), adjustment disorder ( n = 37), substance use disorder ( n = 37) and personality disorder, cluster B ( n = 36). The results suggest that alleles defined by the investigated polymorphisms do not represent a major determinant in suicide attempt. However, a highly significant ( P = 0.001; odds ratio, 1.47; 99% confidence interval, 1.42-1.53) allelic association between tryptophan hydroxylase and suicide attempt is indicated after pooling our data with literature data. In light of previous data, a possible association between the tryptophan hydroxylase polymorphism and a phenotype that may become differently stratified within differently selected samples of suicide attempters is discussed.