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Lack of association between suicide attempt and a polymorphism at the dopamine receptor D4 locus
M L Persson1, T Geijer, D Wasserman
1National and Stockholm County Council Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, National Institute for Psychosocial Factors and Health, Stockholm, Sweden. Maj-Liz.Persson@cnsf.ki.se
Abstract:
Dopaminergic neurotransmission has been implicated in suicidal behaviour. The 48 bp-repeat polymorphism in the gene coding for dopamine receptor D4 was investigated in a sample of suicide attempters (n = 165) and healthy control subjects (n = 99). No association between suicide attempts and this polymorphism was observed. Neither did any significant differences emerge in comparison with control subjects when the suicide attempters were grouped into different diagnostic categories: unipolar (n = 45), anxiety (n = 23), adjustment (n = 37) and personality disorders, cluster B (n = 36). The results suggest that alleles defined by the investigated polymorphism do not have a major impact on suicidal behaviour.