Plasma homovanillic acid correlates inversely with history of childhood trauma in personality disordered and healthy control adults

Abstract

Studies of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) level of the dopamine metabolite, homovanillic acid (HVA), suggest a relationship between CSF HVA concentration and history of childhood trauma. In this study, the authors test the hypothesis that this relationship is also present using peripheral levels of HVA in healthy volunteers and in personality disordered subjects. 68 personality disordered (PD) and healthy control (HC) subjects were chosen, in whom morning basal plasma HVA (pHVA) concentrations and an assessment of childhood trauma were obtained. History of childhood trauma was assessed using the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). A significant inverse correlation was found between CTQ Total scores and pHVA concentration across all subjects. In addition, pHVA was lower, and CTQ scores were higher, in PD as compared with HC subjects. Correlations with other personality and behavioral measures were not statistically significant. The data suggest that pHVA concentrations are inversely correlated with history of childhood trauma and that variability in this index of dopamine function may be affected by the history of childhood trauma in healthy and personality disordered subjects.

Antidopaminergic medication in healthy subjects provokes subjective and objective mental impairments tightly correlated with perturbation of biogenic monoamine metabolism and prolactin secretion

“…In one of the few such studies, a positive correlation between age and pHVA levels in healthy men and women was reported, 31 consistent with findings of age-dependent increases in brain dopamine turnover to positron-emission tomography. 32 Another plasma-metabolite study reported an inverse correlation between pHVA and history of childhood trauma in adults with personality disorder and healthy controls, 33 concurring with results of a similar study of 5-HIAA and HVA in cerebrospinal fluid, 34 which is more closely reflective of central neurotransmitter metabolism. Still others observed an acute reduction in pHVA in healthy individuals subjected to experimental stress.…”