Relationships between serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism, platelet serotonin transporter binding and clinical phenotype in suicidal and non-suicidal adolescent inpatients.

Relationships between the serotonin transporter promoter polymorphism (5-HTTLPR), platelet serotonin transporter (SERT) binding and clinical phenotype were examined in 32 suicidal and 28 non-suicidal Ashkenazi Israeli adolescent psychiatric inpatients. The 5-HTTLPR polymorphism was not associated with transporter binding or with suicidality or other clinical phenotypes. However, in the suicidal group, a significant positive correlation between platelet SERT density and anger scores (n=32, r=.40; p=.027) and a negative correlation between platelet count and trait anxiety (n=32, r=-.42; p=.034) were observed.

Drive theory revisited.

Fallacious energic formulations and phylogenetic oversimplifications have led drive theory into disfavor. However, the advantages of a drive concept based on evolutionary principles outweigh the disadvantages. A psychological drive concept best captures the innately endowed, self-enhancing motivational push compatible with evolutionary principles, while at the same time being consonant with the intrapsychic dynamics of psychoanalytic observation. Current evolutionary principles and their implications are discussed. Incorporating these principles as cogent theoretical postulates is a crucial part of maintaining a link to the natural sciences and thereby to our involvement in the great enterprise of elaborating a comprehensive psychology. To exclude these concepts is to promote a detachment from our involvement in the natural sciences and to lose a powerful heuristic guide for our theoretical endeavors.