Association of the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism with suicidal behavior

Abstract

The authors investigated a polymorphism of the regulatory region of the serotonin transporter gene in a well-characterized sample of in-patients and healthy controls. They found that carriers of a particular allele not only made more suicide attempts over time, but also displayed an enhancement of some aspects of the suicidal gesture-like violence, lethality and intent. These observations are remarkable because they are independent of the clinical diagnosis and, also, the demographic and sociocultural parameters investigated.