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Flight behaviour in humans is intensified by a candidate genetic risk factor for panic disorder: evidence from a translational model of fear and anxiety

Molecular Psychiatry volume 16, pages 242–244 (2011)Cite this article

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Panic disorder (PD) is a serious and common psychiatric condition1 characterized mainly by recurrent episodes of intense, uncontrollable fear known as panic attacks.2 The underlying causal mechanism for PD is unknown;3 however, the discovery that drugs with clinical effectiveness against PD preferentially alter rodent flight behaviour suggests that PD reflects alterations in the brain systems that govern flight.4 An association between PD and flight in humans is supported anecdotally by the tendency for PD sufferers to feel a strong urge to flee from the location where a panic attack occurs.2 Here we provide the first human empirical evidence for a PD–flight link, showing that flight behaviour is significantly more intense in carriers of a candidate genetic risk factor for PD than in non-carriers.

The genotype distribution of rs6313 SNP in HTR2A was in Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (χ2=0.632, d.f.=2, P=0.73). There were no significant genotype effects on flight intensity (F(1, 192)=2.69, P=0.070); however, carriers of the C risk allele showed significantly greater flight intensity than TT individuals (F(1, 194)=4.90, P=0.033; Figure 1b). The construct validity of flight intensity as a specific measure of fear proneness was supported by its significant positive association with scores on tissue damage fear (measured by the Fear Survey Schedule) (F(1, 194)=5.92, P=0.022). The construct validity of flight intensity was also supported by the absence of a significant association with scores on Spielberger trait anxiety (F(1, 194)=0.01, P=0.998), which is a widely accepted questionnaire measure of anxiety proneness.8 Sex did not affect flight intensity in this model (F(1, 194)=1.50, P=0.222), nor was there a significant allele × sex interaction (F(1, 194)=1.56, P=0.213). There was no significant interaction between tissue damage fear and rs6313 carrier status (C carrier or TT homozygote) (F(1, 191)=0.44, P=0.511).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, London, UK

    A M Perkins & S C R Williams

  2. Department of Psychiatry, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany

    U Ettinger

  3. Department of Psychology, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Munich, Germany

    U Ettinger

  4. Department of Psychology, Laboratory of Neurogenetics, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    M Reuter

  5. Center for Economics and Neuroscience, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany

    M Reuter

  6. Department of Psychology, University of Gießn, Gießn, Germany

    J Hennig

  7. School of Social Work and Psychology, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. E-mail: Adam.Perkins@kcl.ac.uk,

    P J Corr

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  1. A M Perkins
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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Molecular Psychiatry website (http://www.nature.com/mp)

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Perkins, A., Ettinger, U., Williams, S. et al. Flight behaviour in humans is intensified by a candidate genetic risk factor for panic disorder: evidence from a translational model of fear and anxiety. Mol Psychiatry 16, 242–244 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2010.2

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