Genetic variation is associated with PTSD risk and aversive memory: Evidence from two trauma-Exposed African samples and one healthy European sample

• Published in: Translational psychiatry 2018-11, Vol.8 (1), p.251-11, Article 251
• Main Authors: Wilker, Sarah, Schneider, Anna, Conrad, Daniela, Pfeiffer, Anett, Boeck, Christina, Lingenfelder, Birke, Freytag, Virginie, Vukojevic, Vanja, Vogler, Christian, Milnik, Annette, Papassotiropoulos, Andreas, J.-F. de Quervain, Dominique, Elbert, Thomas, Kolassa, Stephan, Kolassa, Iris-Tatjana
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 45/43; 631/208; 692/699; Behavioral Sciences; Biological Psychology; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Neurosciences; Pharmacotherapy; Post traumatic stress disorder; Psychiatry
• ISSN: 2158-3188; 2158-3188
• DOI: 10.1038/s41398-018-0297-1

The probability to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), characterized by vivid, intrusive emotional memories of the encountered traumatic events, depends - among other factors - on the number of previous traumatic experiences (traumatic load) and individual genetic vulnerability. So far, our knowledge regarding the biological underpinnings of PTSD is relatively sparse. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) followed by independent replication might help to discover novel, so far unknown biological mechanisms associated with the development of traumatic memories. Here, a GWAS was conducted in N  = 924 Northern Ugandan rebel war survivors and identified seven suggestively significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; p  ≤ 1 × 10 −5 ) for lifetime PTSD risk. Of these seven SNPs, the association of rs3852144 on chromosome 5 was replicated in an independent sample of Rwandan genocide survivors ( N  = 370, p