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Association of Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone Receptor-1 Gene Polymorphisms and Personality Traits with Violent Aggression in Male Adolescents

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Abstract

There is evidence that corticotropin-releasing hormone receptor 1 (CRHR1) gene polymorphisms and indifferent impulsive personality traits play an important role in violent aggression in male adolescents. Genotyping for two tag single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) (rs242924, rs17689966) was conducted using TaqMan SNP for 138 violent young male criminals, 98 nonviolent young male criminals, and 153 noncriminal adults. The general situation and personality traits (SSP) questionnaire was given to the young violent and nonviolent male criminal groups. The results showed that the frequency of the G allele in rs242924 of the CRHR1 gene in the violent aggression group was higher than that in the normal adult controls (P < 0.025, OR = 2.29, 95% CI = 1.13–4.62). The difference in genotype distribution was significant among the three groups (P < 0.05), and when the violent group was compared with the two control groups, no significant difference was found (P > 0.025). The impulsiveness, trait irritability, verbal trait aggression, and physical trait aggression scores in the violent group were significantly higher than those in the nonviolent group of adolescents. These findings suggest that the variance in CRHR1 gene polymorphisms and personality traits may play a role in violent aggression in male adolescents, and that the interaction of the CRHR1 gene and the impulsive personality trait may cause an increased susceptibility to violence towards others.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Youth Fund of the National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81202388), the fourth round of the Shanghai Public Health Three-Year Action Plan-Training Plan of the High-End Overseas Research Team (Grant No. GWTD2015509), and the Top Priority of the Clinic Medical Center and Key Discipline Construction in Shanghai (Grant No. 2017ZZ02021).

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Author notes

  1. Li Liu and Yi Qiao contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shanghai Mental Health Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 600 Wan Ping Nan Road, Shanghai, 200030, People’s Republic of China

    Li Liu, Yi Qiao, Yang Shao, Shun-ying Yu, Chen Zhang, Ran Zhang, Dong-xiang Wang, Min Zhao & Bin Xie

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  1. Li Liu
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  2. Yi Qiao
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  3. Yang Shao
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Correspondence to Yang Shao or Bin Xie.

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Liu, L., Qiao, Y., Shao, Y. et al. Association of Corticotropin-Releasing Hormone Receptor-1 Gene Polymorphisms and Personality Traits with Violent Aggression in Male Adolescents. J Mol Neurosci 70, 145–154 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12031-019-01396-8

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