Elsevier

Psychiatry Research

Volume 149, Issues 1–3, 15 January 2007, Pages 261-266
Psychiatry Research

Brief report
High anxiety and migraine are associated with the s allele of the 5HTTLPR gene polymorphism

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2006.05.014Get rights and content

Abstract

The 5HTTLPR polymorphism of the serotonin transporter gene has been associated with anxiety disorders and also migraine, suggesting a common etiological background of these disorders. This association is further supported by the high comorbidity of these disorders. In our study Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the 5HTTLPR genotype were investigated in a cohort of 97 psychiatrically healthy females also including 45 migraineurs. Higher state anxiety scores were significantly associated with the s allele either in the whole sample or when the group was separated into migraineurs and non-migraineurs. Migraineurs also had a significantly higher frequency of the s allele. Our results indicate that even in a healthy population the s allele is associated with a high anxiety endophenotype. The association of migraine with anxiety may be explained by the higher rate of individuals carrying the s allele among migraineurs.

Introduction

The lifetime comorbidity between anxiety disorders and migraine – both of them are twice as common among females – is much more frequent than would be expected by chance (Breslau et al., 1991, Rihmer et al., 2001). It has also been well documented that abnormal central serotonergic function plays a crucial role in the pathophysiology of anxiety disorders as well as of migraine (Den Boer et al., 2001), and both of these disorders are polygenic multifactorial diseases with several possible candidate genes influencing the manifestation of these disorders (Gardner, 1999).

Recently it has also been reported that the serotonin transporter gene 5HTTLPR (serotonin transporter linked polymorphic region) polymorphism is associated with anxiety disorders (Ohara et al., 1998) and migraine (Juhász et al., 2003a, Juhász et al., 2003b, Marziniak et al., 2005, Borroni et al., 2005), suggesting a common etiological and genetic background of these two, nosologically different but frequently comorbid conditions. There are, however, no published data available about the possible association of these three parameters in the same sample. The aim of our present study was to investigate the possible association of the alleles of the 5HTTLPR polymorphism with subthreshold anxiety symptoms in a psychiatrically healthy population including migraineurs and non-migraineurs.

Section snippets

Subjects

A group of 47 migraine patients without aura referred from the Headache Clinics of the National Institute for Psychiatry and Neurology and Sport Hospital, Budapest, Hungary, and 54 healthy non-migraineurs entered the study. All subjects were female and of Caucasian origin. The headache patients were contacted, asked to participate and informed by their physicians. The healthy control subjects were staff members and university students who had only rare (less than 1/month) and mild, if any,

Results

Mean scores on both scales of the STAI were not elevated compared with the Hungarian average score. Age of migraineurs and non-migraineurs did not differ (41.73 ±1.41 vs. 42.00 ± 1.70 in migraineurs and non-migraineurs, respectively). Distribution of alleles in our sample followed the Hardy–Weinberg equilibrium (χ2 = 0.1409, df = 2, P = 0.9320). The frequency of the s allele was 44.84% in the whole sample and 36.54% in the non-migraineur group, which parallels the result of Heils et al. (1996) and is

Discussion

Previous studies have demonstrated a significant positive association between the s allele of the 5HTTLPR polymorphism and well-defined anxiety disorders (Ohara et al., 1998). It has also been reported that the s allele of the 5HTTLPR was associated with anxiety traits (Lesch et al., 1996, Katsuragi et al., 1999) and with neuroticism in general (Gorwood, 2004, Sen et al., 2004). In our study, the association between the s allele and anxiety was present in our whole sample and also within the

Acknowledgement

These studies were supported by the Sixth Framework Programme of the EU, LSHM-CT-2004-503474, the Ministry of Welfare Research Grant 58/2003, the Hungarian Research Fund Grants 022256/1997 and 032398/2000 and the PhD Fellowship Program of Semmelweis University, Ministry of Culture and Education, Hungary.

References (29)

  • M. Arató et al.

    Gender difference in m-CPP challenge test in healthy volunteers

    International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology

    (1998)
  • G. Bagdy

    Serotonin, anxiety, and stress hormones. Focus on 5-HT receptor subtypes, species and gender differences

    Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

    (1998)
  • B. Borroni et al.

    Functional serotonin 5-HTTLPR polymorphism is a risk factor for migraine with aura

    Journal of Headache and Pain

    (2005)
  • N. Breslau et al.

    The impact of migraine: epidemiology, risk factors, and co-morbidities

    Neurology

    (2001)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text