Monoamine oxidase A regulates antisocial personality in whites with no history of physical abuse.

Abstract

OBJECTIVE:

Preclinical and human family studies clearly link monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) to aggression and antisocial personality (ASP). The 30-base pair variable number tandem repeat in the MAOA promoter regulates MAOA levels, but its effects on ASP in humans are unclear.

METHODS:

We evaluated the association of the variable number tandem repeat of the MAOA promoter with Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, ASP disorder (ASPD) traits in a community sample of 435 participants from the Hopkins Epidemiology of Personality Disorders Study.

RESULTS:

We did not find an association between the activity of the MAOA allele and ASPD traits; however, among whites, when subjects with a history of childhood physical abuse were excluded, the remaining subjects with low-activity alleles had ASPD trait counts that were 41% greater than those with high-activity alleles (P < .05).

CONCLUSION:

The high-activity MAOA allele is protective against ASP among whites with no history of physical abuse, lending support to a link between MAOA expression and antisocial behavior.

• Authors: Irving M Reti, Jerry Z Xu, Jason Yanofski, Jodi McKibben, Magdalena Uhart, Yu-Jen Cheng, Peter Zandi, Oscar J Bienvenu, Jack Samuels, Virginia Willour, Laura Kasch-Semenza, Paul Costa, Karen Bandeen-Roche, William W Eaton, Gerald Nestadt
• Journal: Comprehensive psychiatry (Compr Psychiatry) 2011 Mar-Apr Vol. 52 Issue 2 Pg. 188-94 ISSN: 1532-8384 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 21295226 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural, Research Support, N.I.H., Intramural)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Monoamine Oxidase

Topics

• Adult Survivors of Child Abuse
• Alleles
• Antisocial Personality Disorder (enzymology, genetics)
• Female
• Genetic Association Studies
• Genotype
• Humans
• Male
• Minisatellite Repeats
• Monoamine Oxidase (genetics, metabolism)
• Personality Tests
• Polymorphism, Genetic
• Promoter Regions, Genetic
• Surveys and Questionnaires
• White People (genetics, psychology)