Abstract
Aim. The aim of the present paper was to review the literature on genetic factors in anxiety disorders.
Review. Numerous factors can contribute to the etiology of anxiety disorders. The population, association and linkage studies made so far show that the environmental factors influence 60-70% of the disorders' variability whereas the genetic factors influence up to 40%. The candidate genes are the ones encoding the central and peripheral nervous system receptors and transporters, including dopamine, serotonin and noradrenergic receptor's and transporters as well as GABA-A, GABA-B, adenosine and cholecystokinine receptors. They also encode enzymes metabolizing biogenic amines (e.g., monoaminooxidases and catechol-O-methyltransferase genes). According to the linkage studies, the loci for the specific anxiety disorders were found on human chromosome 1, 3, 9, 11, 14 and 16.
Conclusions. Further replication studies need to be done to confirm above data.