FKBP5 genotype interacts with early life trauma to predict heavy drinking in college students

• Published in: American journal of medical genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric genetics Neuropsychiatric genetics, 2016-09, Vol.171B (6), p.879-887
• Main Authors: Lieberman, Richard, Armeli, Stephen, Scott, Denise M., Kranzler, Henry R., Tennen, Howard, Covault, Jonathan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; alcohol; Alcohol Drinking in College - psychology; alcohol use disorder; Alcoholism - genetics; Alleles; early life stress; Female; gene-environment interaction; Genetic Testing - methods; Genetic Variation - genetics; Genetics; Genotype; Humans; Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System - metabolism; Life Change Events; Male; Pituitary-Adrenal System - metabolism; polymorphism; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide - genetics; Risk Factors; Self Report; Stress, Psychological - genetics; Students - psychology; Tacrolimus Binding Proteins - genetics; Tacrolimus Binding Proteins - metabolism; Tacrolimus Binding Proteins - physiology; Wounds and Injuries; Young Adult
• ISSN: 1552-4841; 1552-485X
• DOI: 10.1002/ajmg.b.32460

Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is debilitating and costly. Identification and better understanding of risk factors influencing the development of AUD remain a research priority. Although early life exposure to trauma increases the risk of adulthood psychiatric disorders, including AUD, many individuals exposed to early life trauma do not develop psychopathology. Underlying genetic factors may contribute to differential sensitivity to trauma experienced in childhood. The hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis is susceptible to long‐lasting changes in function following childhood trauma. Functional genetic variation within FKBP5, a gene encoding a modulator of HPA axis function, is associated with the development of psychiatric symptoms in adulthood, particularly among individuals exposed to trauma early in life. In the current study, we examined interactions between self‐reported early life trauma, past‐year life stress, past‐year trauma, and a single nucleotide polymorphism (rs1360780) in FKBP5 on heavy alcohol consumption in a sample of 1,845 college students from two university settings. Although we found no effect of early life trauma on heavy drinking in rs1360780*T‐allele carriers, rs1360780*C homozygotes exposed to early life trauma had a lower probability of heavy drinking compared to rs1360780*C homozygotes not exposed to early life trauma (P