Genetic variation is associated with PTSD risk and aversive memory: Evidence from two trauma-Exposed African samples and one healthy European sample

Abstract

The probability to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), characterized by vivid, intrusive emotional memories of the encountered traumatic events, depends - among other factors - on the number of previous traumatic experiences (traumatic load) and individual genetic vulnerability. So far, our knowledge regarding the biological underpinnings of PTSD is relatively sparse. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) followed by independent replication might help to discover novel, so far unknown biological mechanisms associated with the development of traumatic memories. Here, a GWAS was conducted in N = 924 Northern Ugandan rebel war survivors and identified seven suggestively significant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; p ≤ 1 × 10−5) for lifetime PTSD risk. Of these seven SNPs, the association of rs3852144 on chromosome 5 was replicated in an independent sample of Rwandan genocide survivors (N = 370, p