Cognitive-behavioral therapy for generalized anxiety disorder is associated with attenuation of limbic activation to threat-related facial emotions.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The neural processes underlying the benefits of cognitive behavioral treatment (CBT) for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are not well understood.

Methods

Twenty-one (n=21) adults with a principal diagnosis of GAD and eleven (n=11) non-anxious healthy controls (HC) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging while completing a facial emotion processing task. Responses to threat-related emotionality (i.e., the contrast of fear and angry vs. happy faces) were assessed at pretreatment and again following 10 sessions of CBT in the GAD group and a comparable waiting period in the HC group.

Results

At pretreatment, GAD participants displayed blunted responses in the amygdala, insula, and anterior cingulate to the happy face-processing comparison condition,

SUBMITTER: Fonzo GA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4172549 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature