Serotonin transporter gene polymorphisms are associated with anxiety-related personality traits in women

Several studies have reported an association between anxiety-related person ality traits and a promoter polymorphism in the human serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene (5-HTT gene-linked polymorphic region, 5-HTTLPR). In the pres ent study, a population of 251 subjects was assessed with the Karolinska Sc ales of Personality (KSP) and genotyped both for the 5-HTTLPR and for a var iable number of tandem repeats polymorphism in the second intron of the sam e gene, The interpretation of previous studies has to some extent been conf ounded by the studied subjects differing with respect to ethnicity, sex, an d age. To circumvent this problem, all included subjects were Caucasians, w omen, and born in the same year (1956), Associations were found between the 5-HTTLPR and four of the five anxiety-related KSP scales (psychic anxiety, muscular tension, psychasthenia, and lack of assertiveness), subjects bein g homozygous for the short allele displaying higher anxiety scores than tho se of the long/long or long/short genotype, in addition, an association was found between the intron 2 polymorphism and one anxiety-related personalit y trait (somatic anxiety), (C) 2001 Wiley-Liss, Inc.