CSF 5-HIAA and family history of antisocial personality disorder in newborns

Objective: The relationship between genetic liability for antisocial behavior and CSF 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA) in newborns was explored. Method: The authors assayed S-HIAA in ''leftover'' CSF from 193 neurologically normal newborns and obtained family psychiatric histories of the newborns' first-and second-degree relatives. Results: Levels of S-HIAA were significantly lower In the infants with family histories of antisocial personality disorder than in the newborns without such family histories, Conclusions: These findings support the possibility that serotonin mediates one component of genetic liability to antisocial outcome, but the magnitude of that component may be less than what has been inferred from previously published reports.