TY - JOUR
T1 - Maternal posttraumatic stress and FKBP5 Genotype interact to predict trauma-related symptoms in preschool-age offspring
AU - Pereira, Destiny M.B.Printz
AU - Grasso, Damion J.
AU - Hodgkinson, Colin A.
AU - McCarthy, Kimberly J.
AU - Wakschlag, Lauren S.
AU - Briggs-Gowan, Margaret J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Financial support for the study was provided by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health (U01MH090301/U01MH090301S, Last author; R01MH082830, Second to last author).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
PY - 2021/9/1
Y1 - 2021/9/1
N2 - Background: Children of parents with posttraumatic stress (PTS) face heightened risk for developing emotional and behavioral problems, regardless of whether they experience a traumatic event themselves. The current study investigates whether child FKBP5, a stress relevant gene shown to interact with child trauma exposure to increase risk for PTS, also moderates the well-established link between maternal PTS and child symptoms. Methods: Data are derived from a longitudinal lab-based study for which 205 dyads of trauma-exposed mothers and their preschool-age children from a sample enriched for violence exposure provided DNA samples and completed measures of maternal and child trauma-related symptoms. Hypotheses tested whether child FKBP5 rs1360780 SNP genotype interacts with child trauma exposure and maternal PTS to predict child trauma-related symptoms. Results: Hypotheses were partially supported, with maternal PTS predicting increased child symptoms for children carrying the minor T-allele (CT/TT), but not those homozygous for the major C-allele. Limitations: Study results may not generalize to lower-risk or non-clinical populations, did not assess between-group differences in race/ethnicity, and do not consider other genes that may interact with FKBP5 or contribute to genetic risk for trauma-related impairment. Conclusions: These findings provide the first evidence that the robust gene x environment interaction involving FKBP5 and child trauma exposure extends to other environmental perturbations, including maternal PTS. Our results highlight the importance of efforts to address trauma-related psychopathology in caregivers, which may disrupt intergenerational risk processes and improve outcomes for children.
AB - Background: Children of parents with posttraumatic stress (PTS) face heightened risk for developing emotional and behavioral problems, regardless of whether they experience a traumatic event themselves. The current study investigates whether child FKBP5, a stress relevant gene shown to interact with child trauma exposure to increase risk for PTS, also moderates the well-established link between maternal PTS and child symptoms. Methods: Data are derived from a longitudinal lab-based study for which 205 dyads of trauma-exposed mothers and their preschool-age children from a sample enriched for violence exposure provided DNA samples and completed measures of maternal and child trauma-related symptoms. Hypotheses tested whether child FKBP5 rs1360780 SNP genotype interacts with child trauma exposure and maternal PTS to predict child trauma-related symptoms. Results: Hypotheses were partially supported, with maternal PTS predicting increased child symptoms for children carrying the minor T-allele (CT/TT), but not those homozygous for the major C-allele. Limitations: Study results may not generalize to lower-risk or non-clinical populations, did not assess between-group differences in race/ethnicity, and do not consider other genes that may interact with FKBP5 or contribute to genetic risk for trauma-related impairment. Conclusions: These findings provide the first evidence that the robust gene x environment interaction involving FKBP5 and child trauma exposure extends to other environmental perturbations, including maternal PTS. Our results highlight the importance of efforts to address trauma-related psychopathology in caregivers, which may disrupt intergenerational risk processes and improve outcomes for children.
KW - Dissociation
KW - FKBP5
KW - Intergenerational trauma
KW - Posttraumatic stress
KW - Preschoolers
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jad.2021.05.042
DO - 10.1016/j.jad.2021.05.042
M3 - Article
C2 - 34130185
AN - SCOPUS:85107812938
SN - 0165-0327
VL - 292
SP - 212
EP - 216
JO - Journal of Affective Disorders
JF - Journal of Affective Disorders
ER -