Association Between Violent Suicidal Behavior and the low Activity Allele of the Serotonin Transporter Gene

51 West European Caucasians who had made violent suicide attempts & 139 controls of the same ethnic origin, with no history of suicidal behaviour, were genotyped. The frequencies of the S allele & the SS genotype were significantly higher in the violent suicide attempters than in the controls. The odds ratio for the SS genotype versus the LL genotype was 3.63. This suggests that a change in expression of the gene encoding the 5-HT transporter may be involved in violent suicidal behaviour. (27 refs.)