Nguyen, T. B., Gunn, J. M., Potiriadis, M., Everall, I. P., & Bousman, C. A.2015-11-022015-11-022015Nguyen, T. B., Gunn, J. M., Potiriadis, M., Everall, I. P., & Bousman, C. A. (2015). Serotonin transporter polymorphism (5HTTLPR), severe childhood abuse and depressive symptom trajectories in adulthood. British Journal of Psychiatry Open, 1(1), 104-109.http://bjpo.rcpsych.org/content/1/1/104.full-text.pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/11212/2607Background: Cross-sectional studies suggest that the serotonin transporter promoter region polymorphism (5-HTT gene-linked polymorphic region, 5HTTLPR) moderates the relationship between childhood abuse and major depressive disorder. Aims: To examine whether the 5HTTLPR polymorphism moderates the effect childhood abuse has on 5-year depressive symptom severity trajectories in adulthood. Method: At 5-year follow-up, DNA from 333 adult primary care attendees was obtained and genotyped for the 5HTTLPR polymorphism. Linear mixed models were used to test for a genotype × childhood abuse interaction effect on 5-year depressive symptom severity trajectories. Results: After covariate adjustment, homozygous s allele carriers with a history of severe childhood abuse had significantly greater depressive symptom severity at baseline compared with those without a history of severe childhood abuse and this effect persisted throughout the 5-year period of observation. Conclusions: The 5HTTLPR s/s genotype robustly moderates the effects of severe childhood abuse on depressive symptom severity trajectories in adulthood. (Author Abstract)enchild abuselong term effectsInternational ResourcesEnglandresearchArticle