Association between tryptophan hydroxylase 2 polymorphism and anger-related personality traits among young Korean women

Background/Aims: It has been suggested that the serotonergic systems are associated with anger and aggressive behaviors. We investigated the association between several single nucleotide polymorphisms in the serotonergic genes and anger-related personality traits. Methods: A total of 228 healthy female Korean women participated in this study. All subjects were assessed with the State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI) and were genotyped for 3 polymorphisms: serotonin transporter (5-HTT) gene-linked polymorphic region (5-HTTLPR), tryptophan hydroxylase 1 (TPH1) A218C, and TPH2 G-703T. Results: The Anger Expression-Out (AX-Out) subscale scores of the STAXI differed significantly between the genotypes for the TPH2 G-703T polymorphism (F = 4.825, p = 0.009). G/G homozygous subjects scored significantly higher on the AX-Out subscale than those with the G/T genotype. However, no significant differences were observed in the relationships between the STAXI subscale scores of subjects with other polymorphisms. Conclusions: This study suggests that the TPH2 G-703T polymorphism might contribute to anger-related traits, especially to the expression of anger.