Cited by 262Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesObsessive-Compulsive Spectrum DisordersNeural and Behavioral Psychology Studies

Predicting treatment response in social anxiety disorder from functional magnetic resonance imaging.

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Doehrmann, Oliver, Ghosh, Satrajit S., Polli, Frida E., Reynolds, Gretchen O., Horn, Franziska, Keshavan, Anisha, Triantafyllou, Christina, Saygin, Zeynep M. +4 more·2013·JAMA Psychiatry

Abstract

CONTEXT: Current behavioral measures poorly predict treatment outcome in social anxiety disorder (SAD). To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine neuroimaging-based treatment prediction in SAD. OBJECTIVE: To measure brain activation in patients with SAD as a biomarker to predict subsequent response to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). DESIGN: Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data were collected prior to CBT intervention. Changes in clinical status were regressed on brain responses and tested for selectivity for social stimuli. SETTING: Patients were treated with protocol-based CBT at anxiety disorder programs at Boston University or Massachusetts General Hospital and underwent neuroimaging data collection at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. PATIENTS: Thirty-nine medication-free patients meeting DSM-IV criteria for the generalized subtype of SAD. INTERVENTIONS: Brain responses to angry vs neutral faces or emotional vs neutral scenes were examined with fMRI prior to initiation of CBT. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Whole-brain regression analyses with differential fMRI responses for angry vs neutral faces and changes in Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale score as the treatment outcome measure. RESULTS: Pretreatment responses significantly predicted subsequent treatment outcome of patients selectively for social stimuli and particularly in regions of higher-order visual cortex. Combining the brain measures with information on clinical severity accounted for more than 40% of the variance in treatment response and substantially exceeded predictions based on clinical measures at baseline. Prediction success was unaffected by testing for potential confounding factors such as depression severity at baseline. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that brain imaging can provide biomarkers that substantially improve predictions for the success of cognitive behavioral interventions and more generally suggest that such biomarkers may offer evidence-based, personalized medicine approaches for optimally selecting among treatment options for a patient.

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Crossref · 10.1001/2013.jamapsychiatry.5

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  • Pre-treatment neural activity in amygdala, dACC, prefrontal, occipital, and temporal regions during simple perceptual matching tasks has predicted CBT responses in SAD participants.

    “A handful of emerging studies have found that pre-treatment neural activity in amygdala, dACC, prefrontal, occipital, and temporal regions during simple perceptual matching tasks has predicted responses to CBT in SAD participants (Doehrmann et al., 2013; Klumpp et al., 2013, 2014).”

    From Neural responses to social threat and predictors of cognitive behavioral therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy in social anxiety disorder (2017) · cites this paper as Doehrmann et al., 2013

    The Comment reports that pretreatment responses to angry versus neutral faces in two occipitotemporal regions predicted CBT outcome in patients with SAD. The Results say prefrontal correlations did not survive correction for multiple comparisons, and found no predictive association in the amygdala; this paper does not establish the claimed dACC prediction. The Methods describe a simple 1-back repetition task during scanning. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Greater symptom reduction following cognitive behavioral therapy is associated with greater pre-treatment neural responses to emotional stimuli within anterior cingulate cortex, dorsomedial/ventromedial prefrontal cortex, and occipital and parietal areas.

    “greater symptom reduction following CBT was associated with greater pre-treatment neural responses to emotional stimuli (emotional faces or rejecting statements) within the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), dm/vmPFC and areas of occipital and parietal lobe (dACC and dmPFC; Burklund et al., 2017; Doehrmann et al., 2013; Klumpp et al., 2014; Klumpp et al., 2013)”

    From Neural connectivity during affect labeling predicts treatment response to psychological therapies for social anxiety disorder. (2019) · cites this paper as Doehrmann et al., 2013

    The Results (Regression Analyses With Brain Responses; page unavailable) report that greater pretreatment responses to angry versus neutral faces in two occipitotemporal clusters correlated with greater CBT response. They do not report the claimed association in anterior cingulate, dorsomedial or ventromedial prefrontal, or parietal regions. Other prefrontal correlations did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. (LLM, conf=0.88)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • Facial expressions have been shown to predict vulnerability to developing mental disorders and treatment response in SAD.

    “They have proven to be a powerful research tool with the ability to predict important outcomes including vulnerability to developing mental disorders (e.g., Pezawas et al., 2005) and even treatment response in SAD (e.g., Doehrmann et al., 2013).”
  • The primary limitation of this work was the sample size, although it is consistent with prior studies in this field.

    “The primary limitation of this work was the sample size, although it is consistent with prior studies in this field (Doehrmann et al., 2013; Whitfield-Gabrieli et al., 2016).”
  • Most studies have instead examined baseline neural predictors of short-term clinical outcomes in SAD.

    “Instead, by far the majority of studies have evaluated baseline neural predictors of short-term clinical outcomes in SAD (Burklund, Torre, Lieberman, Taylor, & Craske, 2017; Doehrmann et al., 2013; Klumpp et al., 2017; Young et al., 2018).”

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. [32]First MB Spitzer RL Gibbon M Williams JBW Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders, Research Version, Patient Edition With Psychotic Screen (SCID-I/P W/PSY SCREEN) New York Biometrics Research, New York State Psychiatric Institute 1997

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Authors
Doehrmann, O., Ghosh, S. S., Polli, F. E., Reynolds, G. O., Horn, F., Keshavan, A., Triantafyllou, C., Saygin, Z. M., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Hofmann, S. G., Pollack, M., & Gabrieli, J. D.
Affiliations
  • McGovern Institute for Brain Research (US)
  • Boston University (US)
Venue
JAMA Psychiatry
Published
2013-01-01
Volume
70
Issue
1
Pages
87
ISSN
2168-622X (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2073814621
Cited by
262
References
63
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 11 · 2022: 13 · 2021: 32 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 16 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 21 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 34 · 2013: 24 · 2012: 2
FWCI
36.41
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • JAMA Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
  • PMC
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH075889, MH078308., MH075889, R01MH078308)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
Keywords
social anxiety disorder, treatment response prediction, cognitive behavioral therapy, neuroimaging biomarkers, brain activation, personalized medicine, clinical severity
MeSH terms
Adult, Anxiety Disorders, Brain, Female, Humans, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Male, Phobic Disorders, Predictive Value of Tests, Psychotherapy, Group, Biomarkers, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Treatment Outcome

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