Original ArticleInteractions Between Life Stressors and Susceptibility Genes (5-HTTLPR and BDNF) on Depression in Korean Elders
Section snippets
Sample and Measurements
This analysis was carried out on data from a prospective community-based study of late-life psychiatric morbidity carried out in Kwangju, South Korea from 2001 to 2003, in collaboration with the 10/66 International Research Program on Dementia in Developing Countries (Prince et al. 2003). All participants gave written formal informed consent at each examination. This study was approved by the Chonnam National University Hospital Institutional Review Board.
Cross-sectional data were analyzed from
Results
Of 732 participants at baseline, case-level depression was present in 101 (13.8%). Frequencies of SLEs and 5-HTTLPR/BDNF genotypes in the sample are displayed in the first column of Table 1. These are compared between those with and without depression in the second through fifth columns of Table 1. Depression was significantly associated with increased numbers of SLEs. Although associations between depression and the two genotypes were in the directions anticipated, these were not significant.
Discussion
The principal findings of this study of community elders were as follows: 1) previous findings of effect modification between 5-HTTLPR genotype and SLEs on risk of depression were confirmed; 2) similar effect modification between BDNF val66met genotype and SLEs on risk of depression was identified; and 3) three-way effect modification between these two genotypes and SLEs on risk of depression was found. These findings were largely confirmed when the analysis was repeated in a follow-up study of
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