Depressive symptoms in mid-pregnancy, lifetime stressors and the 5-HTTLPR genotype

Few studies of gene–environment interactions for the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR), life stressors and depression have considered women separately or examined specific types of stressful life events. None have looked at depression during pregnancy. In the Pregnancy Outcomes and Community Health (POUCH) Study, women were queried about history of stressful life events and depressive symptoms at the time of enrollment (15–27 weeks gestation). Stressful life events were grouped a priori into “subconstructs” (e.g. economic, legal, abuse, loss) and evaluated by subconstruct, total subconstruct score and total stressful life event score. The effect of genotype on the association between stressful life events and elevated depressive symptoms was assessed in 568 white non-Hispanic participants. The relationship between exposure to abuse and elevated depressive symptoms was more pronounced in the s/s group (OR = 24.5) than in the s/l group (OR = 3.0) and the l/l group (OR = 7.7), but this significant interaction was detected only after excluding 73 (13%) women with recent use of psychotropic medications. There was no evidence of gene–environment interaction in analytic models with other stressful life events subconstructs, total subconstruct score or total stressful life events score. These data offer modest support to other reports of gene–environment interaction and highlight the importance of considering specific stressful life events.