It is also noteworthy that in our study we found no significant main effect for the 5-HTTLPR genotype in the development of depressive symptoms in the combined sample from Budapest and Manchester, although a weak but significant association was detected only in the Budapest sample according to the recessive model. Our study thus supports the notion that 5-HTTLPR is involved in the risk for the development of depression via its effect on mediating life events and not because of its direct effect on the emergence of depressive symptoms.
