Citation

Wolf EJ, Mitchell KS, Logue MW, Baldwin CT, Reardon AF, Humphries DE, Miller MW. Depress. Anxiety 2013; 30(12): 1161-1169.

Affiliation

National Center for PTSD, VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Psychiatry, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/da.22176

PMID

24123648

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The corticotropin releasing hormone (CRH) system has been implicated in a variety of anxiety and mood-based symptoms and disorders. CRH receptor-2 (CRHR-2) plays a role in attenuating biological responses to stressful life events and trauma, making the CRHR-2 gene a strong candidate to study in relationship to PTSD. METHODS: The sample was 491 trauma-exposed white non-Hispanic veterans and their cohabitating intimate partners assessed via structured interview for lifetime DSM-IV PTSD; just over 60% met criteria for the disorder. Thirty-one single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in and near CRHR-2, obtained from an array of 2.5 million markers, were tested for association with PTSD diagnosis and symptom severity in the whole sample and in men and women separately. RESULTS: Ten SNPs showed nominally significant evidence of association with PTSD in the full sample and two SNPs (rs8192496 and rs2190242) were significant after permutation-based multiple testing correction (uncorrected ps = .0004 and .0005, odds ratios = .60 and .58, respectively). Analyses stratified by sex revealed that the effect was specific to women, who comprised 35% of the sample (uncorrected ps = .0003 and .0002, odds ratios = .41 and .35, respectively). Two additional SNPs (rs2267715 and rs2284218) also showed significant association with PTSD in women (both uncorrected ps = .001, both odds ratios = .48). CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that CRHR-2 variants may affect risk for PTSD in women by attenuating the stress response and reducing symptoms of the disorder.

Language: en