Serotonin transporter 5-HTTLPR genotype is associated with intrusion and avoidance symptoms of DSM-5 posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Chinese earthquake survivors

ABSTRACT

Background and Objectives: Prior studies have found that the serotonin transporter gene-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR) interacts with trauma exposure to increase general risk for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, there is little knowledge about the effects of the interaction on distinct symptom clusters of PTSD. This study aimed to investigate the relation between the interaction of 5-HTTLPR and earthquake-related exposures and a contemporary phenotypic model of DSM-5 PTSD symptoms in a traumatised adult sample from China.

Design: A cross-sectional design with gene-environment interaction (G × E) approach was adopted. Methods: Participants were 1131 survivors who experienced 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. PTSD symptoms were assessed with the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5). The 5-HTTLPR polymorphism was genotyped with capillary electrophoresis (CE) in ABI 3730xl genetic Analyzer.

Results: Although there was no significant interaction between 5-HTTLPR and traumatic exposure on total PTSD symptoms, respondents with the LL genotype of 5-HTTLPR who were highly exposed to the earthquake experienced lower intrusion and avoidance symptoms than those with the S-allele carriers.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that the 5-HTTLPR may have an important impact on the development of PTSD and add to the extant knowledge on understanding and treating of posttraumatic psychopathology.

KEYWORDS:

• DSM-5
• 5-HTTLPR genotype
• PTSD
• phenotypic models
• gene-environment interaction

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Li Wang http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1459-3412

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 31271099], [grant number 31471004], the External Cooperation Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences [grant number 153111KYSB20160036]; and the Chinese Academy of Sciences President’s International Fellowship Initiative [grant number 2016VEA019].