LACK OF ASSOCIATION BETWEEN DOPAMINE-D4 RECEPTOR GENE AND PERSONALITY-TRAITS

Background. Personality traits have shown considerable heritable compo nents. Association between alleles of a polymorphism in the third exon of the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) and the personality trait Nov elty Seeking has been reported. Recently, in a sample of Swedish nonps ychiatric subjects we could not detect any significant relationships b etween the same polymorphism and Novelty Seeking related scales in the Karolinska Scales of Personality (KSP). However, there was a tendency in the direction of the proposed association. There were also tentati ve associations between an exon I 13 bp deletion polymorphism and the personality traits Socialization and Guilt. Methods. We investigated a new Swedish population-based sample (N = 167) investigated with the K SP for three DRD4 polymorphisms. Results. Neither of the previous resu lts were replicated. Combining the previous and the present samples di d not give rise to any significant association between DRD4 polymorphi sms and personality scales. Conclusions. The dopamine D4 receptor gene is probably not of importance to the different personality dimensions as measured by the Karolinska Scales of Personality.