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Dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene polymorphism is associated with attachment disorganization in infants

Molecular Psychiatry volume 5, pages 633–637 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

About 15% of one-year-old infants in non-clinical, low-risk and up to 80% in high-risk (eg maltreated) populations show extensive disorganized attachment behavior1, 2 in the Strange Situation Test.3 It has also been reported that disorganization of early attachment is a major risk factor for the development of childhood behavior problems.4 The collapse of organized attachment strategy has been explained primarily by inappropriate caregiving, but recently, the contribution of child factors such as neurological impairment5 and neonatal behavioral organization6 has also been suggested. Here we report an association between the DRD4 III exon 48-bp repeat polymorphism and attachment disorganization. Attachment behavior of 90 infants was tested in the Strange Situation and they were independently genotyped for the number of the 48-bp repeats by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The 7-repeat allele was represented with a significantly higher frequency in infants classified as disorganized compared to non-disorganized infants: 12 of 17 (71%) vs 21 of 73 (29%) had at least one 7-repeat allele (χ2 = 8.66, df = 1, P < 0.005). The estimated relative risk for disorganized attachment among children carrying the 7-repeat allele was 4.15. We suggest that, in non-clinical, low-social-risk populations, having a 7-repeat allele predisposes infants to attachment disorganization.

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Acknowledgements

The research presented here was supported by the Hungarian Science Fund (OTKA) Grants F 030075 (KL), T 018453 (JG) and T 022608 (MS-S). We thank all the participants who made this research possible, A Gulyas (Institute of Experimental Medicine, Hungarian Academy of Sciences) for valuable discussions, F Becker-Stoll (University of Regensburg) and E Carlson (University of Minnesota) for cross-checking some of our Strange Situations, and A Temesi for technical assistance.

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Author notes

  1. K Lakatos, I Toth and Z Nemoda: Co-first authors based on equal contributions in separate (psychological and genetic) components of the study

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Social Development Group, Institute of Psychology, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, 398, POB, Hungary, 1394

    K Lakatos, I Toth, K Ney & J Gervai

  2. Institute of Medical Chemistry, Molecular Biology and Pathobiochemistry, Semmelweis University, Budapest, 260, POB, Hungary, 1444

    Z Nemoda & M Sasvari-Szekely

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  1. K Lakatos
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  6. J Gervai
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Correspondence to K Lakatos.

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Lakatos, K., Toth, I., Nemoda, Z. et al. Dopamine D4 receptor (DRD4) gene polymorphism is associated with attachment disorganization in infants. Mol Psychiatry 5, 633–637 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4000773

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