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The role of genes and family in trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder

Molecular Psychiatry volume 6, pages 360–362 (2001)Cite this article

Most human behavioral traits are likely to result from an interplay of genes and environment. The field of psychiatric genetics, in this regard, is rapidly growing. Since the anxiety disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), have a complex genetic basis and are not inherited in strict Mendelian fashion, factors such as incomplete penetrance (an individual who carries the disease allele may not become ill, or the onset may be extremely late), pleiotropy (multiple effects of a single gene), heterogeneity (similar phenotype from different genotypes), and epistatic interactions (several genes interacting in the same individual), amongst others, must be accounted for.1 Although the precise weighting of genes for anxiety disorders is undetermined, twin studies have demonstrated that genetic factors are at least as important as familial aggregation for some anxiety disorders (eg panic disorder and generalised anxiety disorder).

PTSD is a peculiar anxiety disorder in that it requires the presence of exposure to an extremely traumatic environmental event. Previous research has focused on identifying factors that put exposed persons at ‘risk’: female gender, previous trauma exposure, neuroticism, and pre-existing anxiety and depression.2,3 However, more recent data indicate that both the risk of trauma exposure and PTSD may be influenced by genetic make-up and family environment; for example, studies show an increased prevalence of PTSD in the adult children of Holocaust survivors even though these children as a group did not have greater exposure to life-threatening events.4

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Acknowledgements

This work is supported by the MRC Unit on Anxiety and Stress Disorders, Medical Research Council of South Africa.

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  1. Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Stellenbosch, PO Box 19063 Tygerberg 7505, Cape Town, South Africa

    S Seedat, D J Niehaus & D J Stein

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Correspondence to S Seedat.

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Seedat, S., Niehaus, D. & Stein, D. The role of genes and family in trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder. Mol Psychiatry 6, 360–362 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4000867

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