Specific personality traits and dopamine, serotonin genes in anxiety–depressive alcoholism among Han Chinese in Taiwan
Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry
Volume 31, Issue 7, 1 October 2007, Pages 1526-1534

Cloninger had proposed a psychobiological model suggesting that three main personality dimensions distinguish the alcoholism into two subtypes (type I and type II). However, the classification was equivocal for clinical diagnosis.

Recently, anxiety–depressive alcohol dependence (ANX/DEP ALC) has been posited as a genetically specific subtype of alcoholism. Its clinical characteristics were similar to individuals with type I alcoholism [Cloninger, C.R. 1987. Neurogenetic adaptive mechanisms in alcoholism. Science 236: 410–6.] such as having a high comorbidity with mood disorder, late-onset and more anxious/depressed traits.

We attempted to investigate whether the dopamine D2 receptor (DRD2) and the serotonin transporter promoter region (5-HTTLPR) genes were involved in Novelty Seeking (NS) and Harm Avoidance (HA) of ANX/DEP ALC.

Both NS and HA were high in ANX/DEP ALC . The association between NS and ANX/DEP ALC only existed in subjects with DRD2 TaqI A1⁺ allele (A1/A1 or A1/A2 genotypes) and in those with S/S genotype of 5-HTTLPR . With the stratification of DRD2 TaqI A1⁺ allele, high NS of ANX/DEP ALC existed only in carriers of 5-HTTLPR S/S genotype . Moreover, ANX/DEP ALC was related to high HA only in samples carrying 5-HTTLPR S/L or L/L genotype .

These findings provided the empirical genetic characterization of the specific personality traits in ANX/DEP ALC among Han Chinese population in Taiwan.

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Reprint Request E-Mail: rblu@mail.ncku.edu.tw

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