Background: Association studies between marker alleles at the D2 dopamine receptor gene (DRD2) and various psychiatric illnesses have produced conflicting results. Reports of allelic associations were originally made with alcoholism, but were then extended to other psychiatric disorders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Methods: We studied allele frequency of the DRD2 TaqI "A," "B," and "D" system markers in 52 European-American subjects with diagnoses of PTSD (based on structured interviews).
Results: Frequency of the A1 allele in this sample was .15, not significantly different from the .19 allele frequency seen in 87 control subjects. We were thus unable to replicate the previous reports of allelic association between the DRD2 TaqI "A1" allele and PTSD. There were also no significant differences in allele frequency for the "B" or "D" systems. We then computed three marker (TaqI "A," "B," and "D" system) haplotypes for the sample; DRD2 haplotype frequencies also did not differ between control subjects and subjects with PTSD.
Conclusions: We conclude that DRD2 alleles are not associated with PTSD in this sample, and that genetic variation at the DRD2 locus is not likely to be an important contributor to risk for this disorder.