Citation

Toepfer P, O'Donnell KJ, Entringer S, Heim CM, Lin DTS, MacIsaac JL, Kobor MS, Meaney MJ, Provençal N, Binder EB, Wadhwa PD, Buss C. J. Am. Acad. Child Adolesc. Psychiatry 2019; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health (BIH), Institute of Medical Psychology, Berlin, Germany; Development, Health, and Disease Research Program, University of California, Irvine. Electronic address: Claudia.buss@charite.de.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, Publisher Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1016/j.jaac.2019.03.006

PMID

30858011

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Women exposed to childhood maltreatment (CM) are more likely to exhibit insensitive parenting, which may have consequences for their offspring´s development. Variation in the Oxytocin-receptor gene (OXTR) moderates risk of CM-associated long-term sequelae associated with mother-child attachment, although functionality of previously investigated SNPs remained elusive. Here, we investigated the role of OXTR rs237895, a brain tissue expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL), as a moderator of the relationship between CM and maternal behavior (MB) and the association between MB and offspring attachment security.

METHOD: Of 110 women with information on rs237895 genotype (T-allele=64, CC=46), n=107 have information on CM (CTQ) and n=99 on standardized observer-based ratings of MB at 6 months postpartum (responsivity and detachment), which were used in principal components analysis to obtain a latent factor representing MB. Offspring (n=86) attachment was evaluated at 12 months age. Analyses predicting MB were adjusted for socioeconomic status (SES), age, postpartum depression (PPD), and genotype-based ethnicity. Analyses predicting child attachment were adjusted for infant sex, SES, and PPD.

RESULTS: rs237895 significantly moderates the relationship between CM and MB (F_1;66=7.99, p<.01), indicating that CM was associated with maternal insensitivity only in high OXTR-expressing T-allele carriers but not in low OXTR-expressing CC homozygotes. Moreover, maternal insensitivity predicted offspring insecure attachment (B= -.551; p<.05).

CONCLUSION: Women with a high OXTR expressing genotype are more susceptible to CM-related impairments in MB that, in turn, predicts attachment security in their children, supporting the role of the OT-system in the intergenerational transmission of risk associated with maternal CM.

Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Language: en

Keywords

childhood maltreatment; cxytocin receptor gene; gene-environment interaction; intergenerational transmission; parenting