Associations between stress and depression symptom profiles vary according to serotonin transporter polymorphism in rural Australians

Figures & data

Table 1 Mean, SD, and range of scores for psychological variables, and distribution of 5HTTLPR variants

Variable	Mean	SD	Range
SDS total score	37.91	8.50	21–74
Childhood Stressors	67.76	9.28	28–56
Recent Life Stressors	26.76	1.36	20–28
5HTTLPR variants	s-present=184 (73.9%)	s-absent=65 (26.1%)

Abbreviation: SDS, Self-rating Depression Scale.

Table 2 Significant (p≤0.005) Pearson’s correlations between SDS items and Recent Life Stress or Childhood Stress for the s-present subgroup (n=184)

SDS items	I feel downhearted and blue	Morning is when I feel best	I have crying spells or feel like it	My heart beats faster than usual	I get tired for no reason
Recent Life Stress	0.224		0.216	0.210	0.201
Childhood Stress	0.229	0.204			0.253

Abbreviation: SDS, Self-rating Depression Scale.

Table 3 Significant (p≤0.005) Pearson’s correlations between SDS items and Recent Life Stress or Childhood Stress for the s-absent subgroup (n=65)

SDS items	I have crying spells or feel like it	I have trouble sleeping at night	My heart beats faster than usual	I am restless and cannot keep still	I am more irritable than usual	I find it easy to make decisions	I feel that others would be better off if I were dead
Recent Life Stress	0.398	0.346	0.353	0.428		0.367	0.516
Childhood Stress	0.417	0.344	0.453	0.423	0.424

Abbreviation: SDS, Self-rating Depression Scale.

Figure 1 Major (beta weights) SDS items contributing to Recent Life Stressor and Childhood Stressor scores for participants carrying 5HTTLPR s-variant versus participants not carrying 5HTTLPR s-variant. A = s is present; B = s is absent.

Abbreviation: SDS, Self-rating Depression Scale.

Table 4 Significant SDS item predictors of Recent Life Stressors and Childhood Stressors for the s-present and s-absent subgroups

5-HTTLPR subgroup	Stressor source	SDS items making a significant unique contribution to variance	R^2 change	F	p-value
s-present	Recent Life Stressors	I feel downhearted and blue	0.050	9.634	0.002
	Childhood	I get tired for no reason	0.064	12.475	0.001
	Stressors	Morning is when I feel best	0.022	4.437	0.037
s-absent	Recent Life	I am restless and cannot keep still	0.116	8.847	0.004
	Stressors	I feel that others would be better off if I were dead	0.069	4.671	0.034
	Childhood	My heart beats faster than usual	0.205	16.254	<0.001
	Stressors	I am more irritable than usual	0.084	7.319	0.009

Abbreviation: SDS, Self-rating Depression Scale.