Given the effects of drugs on the serotonin transporter, it seemed likely that there may be phenotypic effects of this polymorphism on behaviour:
| Trait Anxiety | Major (unipolar) Depression | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Genotype | N | Neuroticism Score (NEO) | |
| L/L | 648 | 48.5 |
|
| S/L | 1133 | 50.6 | |
| S/S | 751 | 50.3
| |
The "Short" allele weakly increases anxiety (0.2 SD) and risk of major depression.