Support for association of RORA variant and post traumatic stress symptoms in a population-based study of hurricane exposed adults

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is moderately heritable, with estimates ranging from 30 to 70%.1 However, most of the genetic variation accounting for this heritability has yet to be identified, and the majority of molecular studies to date on PTSD have been candidate gene designs.2 Only one genome wide association study of PTSD has been published. In a sample of white non-Hispanic trauma-exposed veterans and their spouses/partners with and without PTSD, Logue and colleagues3 found that one single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; rs8042149) in the retinoid-related orphan receptor alpha gene (RORA) reached genome-wide significance. RORA has been implicated, in part, in protecting brain cells from the damaging effects of injury, stress and disease,3 and it is possible that individuals with the variation in RORA may be at increased risk for developing PTSD due to deficits in initiating neuroprotective processes after trauma. We sought to provide supporting evidence for the genetic association between RORA*rs8042149 and PTSD using data from the 2004 Florida hurricanes study.