Furthermore, in accordance with several earlier studies and certain meta-analyses13, 14 our results have also shown that life events considered as a whole showed only a weak nominal interaction effect with 5-HTTLPR in the development of depression, which did not survive correction for multiple testing in either population. In a previous study in a partially overlapping sample33 we also reported a weak interaction effect between the 5-HTTLPR genotype and recent life events on lifetime depression and current depressive symptoms. These findings support a role for the 5-HTTLPR genotype having a role in mediating the effects of recent life events, and a differential effect with respect to the type of event. This informs the debate as to whether all types of life events or only childhood adverse events are mediated by the 5-HTTLPR genotype, and is in accordance with the results of the latest and largest meta-analysis,16 showing only a marginal association in case of recent life events.
