PTSD and dopaminergic genes, DRD2 and DAT, in multigenerational families exposed to the Spitak earthquake

• Published in: Psychiatry research 2010-08, Vol.178 (3), p.507-510
• Main Authors: Bailey, Julia N, Goenjian, Armen K, Noble, Ernest P, Walling, David P, Ritchie, Terry, Goenjian, Haig A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Anxiety disorders. Neuroses; B category symptoms; Biological and medical sciences; DAT; Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins - genetics; DRD2; Earthquakes; Family Health; Female; Gene Frequency; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genome-Wide Association Study; Genotype; Heritability; Humans; Male; Medical sciences; Polymorphism, Genetic - genetics; Post-traumatic stress disorder; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics - methods; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; PTSD; Receptors, Dopamine D2 - genetics; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - diagnosis; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - genetics; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - psychology; Trinucleotide Repeat Expansion - genetics
• ISSN: 0165-1781; 1872-7123
• DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2010.04.043

Abstract The objective of this study was to assess the generality of the association of DRD2 and DAT genes and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) diagnosis/symptom severity. Two hundred ethnic Armenians from 12 multigenerational families exposed to the catastrophic 1988 Spitak earthquake were studied. Common polymorphisms A1/A2 alleles of the DRD2 and ‘9’ repeat allele of DAT gene were genotyped. Heritability, association and linkage were assessed using variance component genetic analyses. After adjusting for the covariates, the heritabilities of PTSD diagnosis and B and C category symptoms were: 0.37, 0.75 and 0.39 respectively. Category D symptoms were not heritable. Neither the DRD2 nor the DAT polymorphisms explained the variation seen in PTSD diagnosis, total PTSD symptom severity, and categories B and C symptom severities. These findings contradict prior reports of positive associations between both DRD2 and DAT, and PTSD.