Exonic variants of the GABABreceptor gene and panic disorder

The enhancement of GABAergic neurotransmission has been closely linked to antipanic drug efficacy. This is the first study to investigate a putative association of exonic sequence variants of the human GABABreceptor 1 GABABR1 gene and susceptibility to panic disorder. Three DNA sequence variants in exons 1a1, 7 and 11 were assessed by polymerase chain reactionbased restriction fragment length polymorphism in a casecontrol study among patients with panic disorder with and without agoraphobia DSM IIIR criteria and blood donors. There was no indication of an increased vulnerability to panic disorder or agoraphobia with respect to the allelic variants under study.