Korean Journal of Biological Psychiatry

Objectives：Disturbances of serotonergic system might be related to the possible mechanism of social phobia. This study was to investigate the association of serotonin transporter gene and social phobia.

　

Methods：Sixty nine patients with social phobia(51 male(73.9%), mean age 35.17±11.89 years) and seventy four normal controls(54 male(73.0%), mean age 33.46±9.63 years) were tested for serotonin transporter gene-linked polymorphic region(5-HTTLPR) polymorphism. Additionally, patients were grouped into 46 generalized(GEN) and 23 nongeneralized(NGEN) subgroups and 5-HTTLPR polymorphism was compared with that of normal controls. The genotypes and allele frequencies of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism between social phobia and the control group were compared. Genomic DNA was extracted from their blood and 5-HTTLPR polymorphisms were determined by using polymerase chain reaction.

　

Results：Significant association was observed between the S(ss) genotype and social phobia, by functional classification(p=.010). In allele frequency analysis, a significant association was also observed between the short allele and social phobia(p=.030). A significant associations between S genotype and each subgroup were observed(GEN p=.045；NGEN p=.033), but there were no differences in allele frequency. And, no differences in genotype and allele distribution between two subgroups were found.

　

Conclusion：The results in our Korean sample suggest that S genotype of 5-HTTLPR may be associated with social phobia and s allele may be an important genetic factor that activates social phobic symptoms. But, further studies including large number of samples are necessary to elucidate these present findings.

Keywords Social phobia;Serotonin trasporter(5-HTT);Polymorphism.