The Association between Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, 5HTTLPR, and the Role of Ethnicity: A Meta-Analysis.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The current meta-analysis looks at the effect of ethnicity on the connection between 5-HTTLPR SNPs and PTSD patients in all published genetic association studies.

TECHNIQUES

In accordance with PRISMA principles, the literature was searched in PubMed, Scopus, and ScienceDirect. A consistent method was followed by two reviewers who independently chose publications for inclusion and extracted data. Using a random-effects model, a meta-analysis of the biallelic and triallelic studies was conducted in order to determine the pooled OR and the associated 95% CI. The impact estimates were corrected for minor study effects, including publication bias, using the trim-and-fill approach.

FINDINGS

After 17 studies were deemed eligible for inclusion, the overall sample size was 8838 controls and 2586 PTSD patients, as opposed to 627 and 3524 in the triallelic meta-analysis. The results of our meta-analysis and comprehensive review do not point to a direct main effect of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphisms on PTSD. Nonetheless, preliminary data suggest that ethnicity influences the association between 5-HTTLPR and PTSD.

CONCLUSIONS

According to our findings, ethnicity-especially African ethnicity-has a major influence on the relationship between 5-HTTLPR and PTSD and needs to be taken into account as a crucial moderating factor in further studies.