Citation

Rujescu D. Psychiatr. Danub. 2006; 18(Suppl 1): 100.

Affiliation

Molecular Neurobiology, Department of Psychiatry, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Nubaumstrabe 7, D-80336 München, Germany. Dan.Rujescu@med.uni-muenchen.de.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Facultas Universitatis Studiorum Zagrabiensis - Danube Symposion of Psychiatry)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

16964039

Abstract

Risk of suicide-related behavior is determined by a complex interplay of sociocultural factors, traumatic life experiences, psychiatric history, personality traits, and genetic vulnerability. This is supported by adoption and family studies indicating that suicidal acts have a genetic contribution that is independent of the heritability of Axis I and II psychopathology. Neurobiological studies have shown serotonergic dysfunction in suicidal behaviors. These findings stimulated the investigation of variations in serotonergic genes in this context. We have initiated a large scale case control genetic association study which comprises of 250 suicide attempters and 1500 healthy volunteers and investigated the role of a comprehensive set of serotonergic candidate genes in this behavior. We will present new data on a comprehensive set of serotonergic candidate genes. Since both, aggression related traits and serotonergic activity are partially heritable and correlate inversely, variations in genes of the serotonergic system might then, to some extent, account for variations in aggression-related behavior. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between serotonergic genes and anger, as a subtype of aggression-related behavior. Additionally we conducted a large-scale gene expression analysis to identify new candidate-genes for suicide. These genes will be genotyped as well to look for associations with suicide, anger and aggression-related behavior.

Language: en