gastrin-releasing-peptide and Agoraphobia

A gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR) knock-out mouse model provided evidence that the gastrin-releasing peptide (GRP) and its neural circuitry operate as a negative feedback-loop regulating fear, suggesting a novel candidate mechanism contributing to individual differences in fear-conditioning and associated psychiatric disorders such as agoraphobia with/without panic disorder. Studies in humans, however, provided inconclusive evidence on the association of GRP and GRPR variations in agoraphobia with/without panic disorder. Based on these findings, we investigated whether GRP and GRPR variants are associated with agoraphobia. Mental disorders were assessed via the Munich-Composite International Diagnostic Interview (M-CIDI) in 95 patients with agoraphobia with/without panic disorder and 119 controls without any mental disorders. A complete sequence analysis of GRP and GRPR was performed in all participants. We found no association of 16 GRP and 7 GRPR variants with agoraphobia with/without panic disorder.

Topics: Agoraphobia; Case-Control Studies; Gastrin-Releasing Peptide; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Humans; Receptors, Bombesin