Scientific Reports (Nov 2017)

Meta-analysis of the interaction between serotonin transporter promoter variant, stress, and posttraumatic stress disorder

  • Mingzhe Zhao,
  • Jiarun Yang,
  • Wenbo Wang,
  • Jingsong Ma,
  • Jian Zhang,
  • Xueyan Zhao,
  • Xiaohui Qiu,
  • Xiuxian Yang,
  • Zhengxue Qiao,
  • Xuejia Song,
  • Lin Wang,
  • Shixiang Jiang,
  • Erying Zhao,
  • Yanjie Yang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-15168-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 1
pp. 1 – 10

Abstract

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Abstract Exposure to stress predicts the occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in individuals harboring the serotonin transporter promoter variant 5-HTTLPR. We carried out a meta-analysis of studies investigating the interaction between 5-HTTLPR, stress, and PTSD to clarify the interrelatedness of these factors. We reviewed all relevant studies published in English before May 2016. The Lipták–Stouffer z-score method for meta-analysis was applied to combined data. The z score was separately calculated for the stressful life events, childhood adversity, bi- and triallelic loci, and cross-sectional and longitudinal studies subgroups. A total of 14 studies with 15,883 subjects met our inclusion criteria. We found strong evidence that the presence of 5-HTTLPR influenced the relationship between stress and PTSD (P = 0.00003), with the strongest effects observed in the cross-sectional and longitudinal groups (P = 0.01 and 2.0 × 10−6, respectively). Stressful life events and childhood adversity separately interacted with 5-HTTLPR in PTSD (P = 2.0 × 10−8 and 0.003, respectively). When the studies were stratified by locus classification, the evidence was stronger for the triallelic (P = 4.0 × 10−8) than for the biallelic (P = 0.054) locus subgroup. There was strong evidence that 5-HTTLPR influences the relationship between stress and PTSD.