Lack of association between three serotonin genes and suicidal behavior in Chinese psychiatric patients

Background: Suicide is a significant health problem throughout the world. The serotoninergic system is believed to be involved in suicidal behavior and there is evidence of biological abnormalities of two serotonin receptors (HTR2A, HTR2C) and one serotonin transporter (5HTT) in suicide victims. Rs6313 (T102C) of HTR2A and rs6318 (Cys23Ser) of HTR2C have been investigated in suicide behavior in other studies. Methods: Here, we investigated rs6313 and rs6318 and other 10 randomly chosen SNPs, of those three genes in a study of 329 psychiatric patients who had never attempted suicide and 297 patients who had attempted suicide. Results: No associations were found for the 12 SNPS. Conclusions: Our results do not support the involvement of HTR2A, 5HTT or HTR2C in suicidal behavior in Han Chinese subjects. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.