HH) showed a trend toward greater aggression reactivity scores in women who were homozygous for the H allele compared with those with one or two L alleles (F(1, 328) = 3.40, P = 0.07, partial η2 = 0.010). Such effects were not observed on the other primary outcome measures. Analyses of the secondary outcome measures showed a significant difference between genotypes on the RAV reactivity subscale (F(1, 326) = 3.20; P = 0.04, partial η2 = 0.01), although the post

hoc group comparisons were Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical not significant. No other effects of genotype were found. Interaction effects No interaction effects were found. Discussion The aim of this study was to investigate the role of the MAOA gene and its interaction with childhood trauma and sex on measures of trait and state-dependent aggression-related behaviors in a healthy young adult sample. We found that women with the MAOA-HH genotype scored higher on some measures of aggression compared with MAOA-LL women. Specifically, MAOA-HH women reported more aggressive thoughts and behavior in relation to sad mood (LEIDS-R AGG scale) compared Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical with MAOA-LL women. Such effects on the LEIDS-R AGG scale did not occur in men, nor did we see any effects on more general trait and state measures of aggressive

behaviors such as the STAXI. This discrepancy between the results on the LEIDS-R and the STAXI may be explained by the fact that the STAXI contains two separate scales Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical for state and for trait, whereas the LEIDS-R measures aggression in the

context of dysphoria. The notion that the effects of MAOA genotype may be context dependent is consistent with an experimental study in healthy Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical males (McDermott et al. 2009). Using an aggression provocation task, it was found that the impact of the MAOA-L variant on aggressive behavior in males was largest in the context of aggression provocation (McDermott et al. 2009). The presently found sex-specific effects and their direction are in line with Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Sjöberg et al. (2007), who reported more criminal behavior in MAOA-HH adolescent girls with higher psychosocial risk compared with adolescent girls without this risk. Our study is a first in showing an association between from the high-expression MAOA variant and aggression-related behaviors in adult women. Sjöberg et al. found only effects in girls with higher levels of psychosocial adversity, whereas in our sample, the effects were irrespective of childhood trauma history. Differences in the type of childhood trauma measured (Sjöberg: multifamily housing and sexual abuse; current study: emotional and physical neglect and abuse, sexual abuse) may account for the discrepancies in findings between the studies. We also found sex-specific effects of the MAOA-H variant on total LEIDS-R score, RAV and RUM. RUM is known to predict higher levels of depressive symptoms, PR-171 cell line recurrence of depressive episodes, as well as chronicity (Nolen-Hoeksema 1991; Robinson and Alloy 2003). Antypa et al.