It was recently reported in Science (1997; 274:1527-1531) that there was an association between anxiety traits and a newly described functional polymorphism in the serotonin transporter transcriptional control region (5-HTTLPR). In the present work, Cloninger's Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ) was used to assess personality dimensions such as novelty seeking, harm avoidance, reward dependence, and persistence. The authors conducted a study of 120 normal adult male and female volunteers. They found no relationship between the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and any of the four TPQ personality dimensions, including harm avoidance, which incorporates many aspects of anxiety and is correlated with NEO-PI-R neuroticism. These findings could not be explained by differences in genotype frequency or by ethnic background (Ashkenazi and non-Ashkenazi). Although lack of association in this study might be disappointing, it is not an unexpected result of repeated investigations designed to confirm initial findings across diverse cultural and ethnic categories. For further information, please contact the corresponding author, Dr. Richard P. Ebstein, at the Research Laboratory, S. Herzog Memorial Hospital, Jerusalem, Israel; Tel: +972-2-5316855; Fax: +972-2-5316855; e-mail: [email protected]

RP Ebstein, I Gritsenko, L Nemanov, A Frisch, Y Osher, RH Belmaker Research Laboratory, S Herzog Memorial Hospital, Jerusalem, Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beersheva, Israel

These articles will be published in the May issue of Molecular Psychiatry, an independent peer-reviewed journal published by Stockton Press/Macmillan Press.

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