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Single‐nucleotide polymorphisms in genes related to the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal axis as risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder
Author(s) -
Carvalho Carolina M.,
Coimbra Bruno M.,
Ota Vanessa K.,
Mello Marcelo F.,
Belangero Sintia I.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
american journal of medical genetics part b: neuropsychiatric genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.393
H-Index - 126
eISSN - 1552-485X
pISSN - 1552-4841
DOI - 10.1002/ajmg.b.32564
Subject(s) - fkbp5 , hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis , etiology , posttraumatic stress , single nucleotide polymorphism , traumatic stress , medicine , psychiatry , clinical psychology , psychology , bioinformatics , gene , genetics , glucocorticoid , biology , hormone , glucocorticoid receptor , genotype
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common psychiatric disorder. The etiology of PTSD is multifactorial, depending on many environmental and genetic risk factors, and the exposure to life or physical integrity‐threatening events. Several studies have shown significant correlations of many neurobiological findings with PTSD. Hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis dysfunction is strongly correlated with this disorder. One hypothesis is that HPA axis dysfunction may precede the traumatic event, suggesting that genes expressed in the HPA axis may be involved in the development of PTSD. This article reviews molecular genetic studies related to PTSD collected through a literature search performed in PubMed, MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO). The results of these studies suggest that several polymorphisms in the HPA axis genes, including FKBP5 , NR3C1 , CRHR1 , and CRHR2 , may be risk factors for PTSD development or may be associated with the severity of PTSD symptoms.