Gene, child trauma increase PSTD risk

ATLANTA, March 19 (UPI) -- People abused as children, who have variations of a gene related to stress, may be at higher risk of post-traumatic stress disorder later, a U.S. study said.

Rebekah G. Bradley of the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta and colleagues conducted a study to determine the role of variations in one of the genes related to stress response, FKBP5, in predicting PTSD symptoms in a sample of highly-traumatized, low-income men and women living in an urban area.

The researchers found both level of child abuse and level of other types of trauma each separately predicted level of adult PTSD symptoms. Although genetic variations -- FKBP5 SNPs -- did not directly predict PTSD symptom outcome or interact with level of non–child abuse trauma to predict PTSD symptom severity, four variations in the FKBP5 locus significantly interacted with the severity of child abuse to predict level of adult PTSD symptoms.

The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, were presented at a media briefing at the National Press Club in Washington.