We then genotyped the genome-wide significant SNP (rs1545843) of the GWA study together with seven to nineteen SNPs in LD within this locus in five independent samples. These comprised three German case-control samples, including two samples for which GWA data have been published (Muglia et al., 2008; Rietschel et al., 2010). The German samples consist of patients with recurrent MD and matched controls screened for the absence of life time anxiety and mood disorders recruited in Southern Germany (N=920/1024) (Muglia et al., 2008), patients with major depression and controls recruited around the German city of Bonn (N=292/1155) as well as patients and controls recruited as a follow-up of the discovery sample (N=300/236). In addition, the association was tested in a sample from the Netherlands. In the Erasmus Rucphen Family (ERF) study subsample (N=1160)(Choy et al., 2009) symptoms of depression during the past week were assessed using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and the depression subscale of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-D). To create a proxy for case/control status, we compared the individuals rating in the
