Chronic and acute stress, gender, and serotonin transporter gene-environment interactions predicting depression symptoms in youth

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Constance Hammen, University of California, Los Angeles; Patricia Brennan, Emory University; Danielle Keenan-Miller, University of California, Los Angeles; Nichols A. Hazel, University of California, Los Angeles; Jake M. Najman, University of Queensland
• Language: English
• Date: 2010-02-01
• Publisher: Wiley: 12 months
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © 2009 Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
• Final Published Version (URL): http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.2009.02177.x
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
• ISSN: 0021-9630
• Volume: 51
• Issue: 2
• Start Page: 180
• End Page: 187
• Grant/Funding Information: This study was supported by NIMH R01 MH52239 to Brennan, Hammen, and Najman.
• Keywords: Genotype; Chronic Disease; Acute Disease; Prospective Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; Adolescent; Humans; Depressive Disorder; Female; Stress, Psychological; Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins; Adult; Environment; Young Adult; Alleles
• Research Categories: Psychology, Developmental; Health Sciences, Mental Health; Biology, Genetics

Abstract

Background: Many recent studies of serotonin transporter gene by environment effects predicting depression have used stress assessments with undefined or poor psychometric methods, possibly contributing to wide variation in findings. The present study attempted to distinguish between effects of acute and chronic stress to predict depressive symptoms at age 20 among 346 youth varying in polymorphisms of the 5HTT gene who had been assessed at ages 15 and 20. Methods: Interview measures assessed major acute life events between 15 and 19, and multiple interviews and questionnaires with youths and their parents at youth age 15 provided an index of chronic family stress. Lg alleles were reclassified as S. Results: Chronic family stress at age 15 predicted higher depression scores at 20 among those with one or two S alleles, and the effects of genetic moderation were significant only for females. Gene-environment interactions with acute stress were nonsignificant. Conclusions: Careful measurement and separation of the effects of chronic and acute stress, and gender, are encouraged in the study of mechanisms of the stress-depression association.