The findings may be interpreted from the perspective of the social salience hypothesis of oxytocin, with rs4813625 affecting social anxiety levels along a perceived unsafe-safe social context dimension.
We, thus, assessed childhood trauma (Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, CTQ) and GSE in 678 adults genotyped for 5-HTTLPR/rs25531 and their interaction on agoraphobic cognitions (Agoraphobic Cognitions Questionnaire, ACQ), social anxiety (Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, LSAS), and trait anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, STAI-T).
The present pilot data point to a strong association of less secure attachment and social anxiety as well as to a gene-environment interaction effect of OXTR rs53576 genotype and attachment style on social anxiety possibly constituting a targetable combined risk marker of social anxiety disorder.
Caucasian girls who both were heterozygous for the OXTR rs2254298 polymorphism and had high early adversity reported the highest levels of symptoms of depression, physical anxiety, and social anxiety.