Cited by 125Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesChild and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development

A preliminary investigation of neural correlates of treatment in adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder

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Maslowsky, Julie, Mogg, Karin, Bradley, Brendan P., McClure-Tone, Erin, Ernst, Monique, Pine, Daniel S., Monk, Christopher S.·2010·Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology

Abstract

Objective: Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is a prevalent and debilitating psychiatric condition of adolescence. Two effective forms of treatment are cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). This pilot study examined changes in brain function following each type of treatment in GAD. Method: Subjects were 14 youths with GAD (7 had CBT, 7 received fluoxetine) and 10 age- and gender-matched healthy peers. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans were acquired before and after treatment for patients and over two comparable time points for controls. During fMRI acquisition, a probe detection task with emotional (angry, happy) and neutral faces allowed for assessment of neural response to threat. Following previous research, region of interest analyses were performed in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). Results: fMRI results showed increased right VLPFC activation, relative to controls, in the medication ( t (15) = 3.01, p < 0.01) and CBT ( t (15) = 3.22, p < 0.01) groups following treatment. Conclusions: This study shows significant increase in right VLPFC activation in response to angry faces following treatment with CBT or fluoxetine for GAD. This is consistent with previous research indicating that the VLPFC may facilitate effective responding to underlying neural correlates of anxiety in other brain regions, such as the amygdala.

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  • Psychotropic medications such as SSRIs have been shown to enhance prefrontal down-regulation of the amygdala in healthy controls and depressed patients.

    “As psychotropic medications, such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, have been shown to enhance prefrontal down-regulation of the amygdala in healthy controls (Sladky, Spies, et al., 2015) and in depressed patients (Heller et al., 2013; Maslowsky et al., 2010), medication effects are an important consideration for future research on emotion regulation.”

    From Changes in functional connectivity with cognitive behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder predict outcomes at follow-up (2020) · cites this paper as Maslowsky et al., 2010

    The fMRI Results (p. 10) report increased ventrolateral prefrontal activation after fluoxetine treatment relative to controls. But the treated participants were adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder, not depressed patients, and the study does not demonstrate prefrontal down-regulation of the amygdala. (LLM, conf=0.88)

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  • In adolescents with generalized anxiety disorder, pretreatment amygdala activation is associated with less clinical improvement, and successful treatment with CBT or fluoxetine is associated with increased right ventrolateral prefrontal activation to angry faces.

    “Pretreatment amygdala activation was associated with less clinical improvement after treatment.”

    From Neural Substrates of Childhood Anxiety Disorders (2012) · cites this paper as [126]

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Research works printed but not linked: 1

  1. Kendall PC & Hedtke KA: Cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxious children: therapist manual, 3 rd edition. Workbook Publishing, Inc, Ardmore, PA, 2006.

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Authors
Maslowsky, J., Mogg, K., Bradley, B. P., McClure-Tone, E., Ernst, M., Pine, D. S., & Monk, C. S.
Affiliations
  • University of Michigan (US)
  • University of Southampton (GB)
  • Georgia State University
  • National Institute of Mental Health
  • National Institutes of Health (US)
Corresponding author
Maslowsky, Julie
Venue
Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology
Published
2010-04
Volume
20
Issue
2
Pages
105-111
ISSN
  • 1044-5463 (ISSN-L)
  • 1557-8992
OpenAlex
W2012675869
Cited by
125
References
45
Citations by year
2026: 5 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 8 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 11 · 2012: 11
FWCI
13.40
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Deep Blue (University of Michigan) (submittedVersion)
  • ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Institute of Mental Health (K22MH068017)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
Keywords
generalized anxiety disorder, adolescents, cognitive behavioral therapy, fluoxetine, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, threat response, emotional face processing, amygdala
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Anxiety Disorders, Emotions, Facial Expression, Female, Fluoxetine, Humans, Male, Neural Pathways, Pilot Projects, Psychomotor Performance, Visual Perception, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, Prefrontal Cortex

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