TY  - JOUR
A1  - Weber, Heike
A1  - Maihofer, Adam X.
A1  - Jaksic, Nenad
A1  - Bojic, Elma Feric
A1  - Kucukalic, Sabina
A1  - Dzananovic, Emina Sabic
A1  - Uka, Aferdita Goci
A1  - Hoxha, Blerina
A1  - Haxhibeqiri, Valdete
A1  - Haxhibeqiri, Shpend
A1  - Kravic, Nermina
A1  - Umihanic, Mirnesa Muminovic
A1  - Franc, Ana Cima
A1  - Babic, Romana
A1  - Pavlovic, Marko
A1  - Mehmedbasic, Alma Bravo
A1  - Aukst-Margetic, Branka
A1  - Kucukalic, Abdulah
A1  - Marjanovic, Damir
A1  - Babic, Dragan
A1  - Jakovljevic, Miro
A1  - Sinanovic, Osman
A1  - Avidbegović, Esmina
A1  - Agani, Ferid
A1  - Warrings, Bodo
A1  - Domschke, Katharina
A1  - Nievergelt, Caroline M.
A1  - Dzubur-Kulenovic, Alma
A1  - Erhardt, Angelika
T1  - Association of polygenic risk scores, traumatic life events and coping strategies with war-related PTSD diagnosis and symptom severity in the South Eastern Europe (SEE)-PTSD cohort
JF  - Journal of Neural Transmission
N2  - Objectives
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is triggered by extremely stressful environmental events and characterized by high emotional distress, re-experiencing of trauma, avoidance and hypervigilance. The present study uses polygenic risk scores (PRS) derived from the UK Biobank (UKBB) mega-cohort analysis as part of the PGC PTSD GWAS effort to determine the heritable basis of PTSD in the South Eastern Europe (SEE)-PTSD cohort. We further analyzed the relation between PRS and additional disease-related variables, such as number and intensity of life events, coping, sex and age at war on PTSD and CAPS as outcome variables.
Methods
Association of PRS, number and intensity of life events, coping, sex and age on PTSD were calculated using logistic regression in a total of 321 subjects with current and remitted PTSD and 337 controls previously subjected to traumatic events but not having PTSD. In addition, PRS and other disease-related variables were tested for association with PTSD symptom severity, measured by the Clinician Administrated PTSD Scale (CAPS) by liner regression. To assess the relationship between the main outcomes PTSD diagnosis and symptom severity, each of the examined variables was adjusted for all other PTSD related variables.
Results
The categorical analysis showed significant polygenic risk in patients with remitted PTSD and the total sample, whereas no effects were found on symptom severity. Intensity of life events as well as the individual coping style were significantly associated with PTSD diagnosis in both current and remitted cases. The dimensional analyses showed as association of war-related frequency of trauma with symptom severity, whereas the intensity of trauma yielded significant results independently of trauma timing in current PTSD.
Conclusions
The present PRS application in the SEE-PTSD cohort confirms modest but significant polygenic risk for PTSD diagnosis. Environmental factors, mainly the intensity of traumatic life events and negative coping strategies, yielded associations with PTSD both categorically and dimensionally with more significant p-values. This suggests that, at least in the present cohort of war-related trauma, the association of environmental factors and current individual coping strategies with PTSD psychopathology was stronger than the polygenic risk.
KW  - life events
KW  - PTSD
KW  - CAPS
KW  - polygenic risk score
KW  - coping style
Y1  - 2022
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-268541
SN  - 1435-1463
VL  - 129
IS  - 5-6
ER  -