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A pilot study of gray matter volume changes associated with paroxetine treatment and response in social anxiety disorder.

ABSTRACT: Social anxiety disorder (SAD) has received relatively little attention in neurobiological studies. We sought to identify neuro-anatomical changes associated with successful treatment for the disorder. Fourteen patients (31 years; 57% female) with DSM-IV generalized SAD were imaged before and after 8-weeks of paroxetine treatment on a 1.5 T GE Signa MRI scanner. Symptoms were assessed by a clinician using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). Longitudinal changes in voxel based morphometry (VBM) were determined using the VBM8 Toolbox for SPM8. Symptom severity decreased by 46% following treatment (p<0.001). At week 8, significant gray matter reductions were detected in bilateral caudate and putamen, and right thalamus, and increases in the cerebellum. Gray matter decreases in left thalamus were correlated with clinical response. This is the first study to our knowledge to identify treatment related correlates of symptom improvement for SAD. Replication in larger samples with control groups is needed to confirm these findings, as well as to test their specificity and temporal stability.

SUBMITTER: Talati A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4363180 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A pilot study of gray matter volume changes associated with paroxetine treatment and response in social anxiety disorder.

Talati Ardesheer A Pantazatos Spiro P SP Hirsch Joy J Schneier Franklin F

Psychiatry research 20150119 3

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) has received relatively little attention in neurobiological studies. We sought to identify neuro-anatomical changes associated with successful treatment for the disorder. Fourteen patients (31 years; 57% female) with DSM-IV generalized SAD were imaged before and after 8-weeks of paroxetine treatment on a 1.5 T GE Signa MRI scanner. Symptoms were assessed by a clinician using the Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS). Longitudinal changes in voxel based morphometry ( ...[more]

PMID: 25659476

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Project description:BackgroundAn overlap of clinical symptoms between major depressive disorder (MDD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD) suggests that the two disorders exhibit similar brain mechanisms. However, few studies have directly compared the brain structures of the two disorders. The aim of this study was to assess the gray matter volume (GMV) and cortical thickness alterations between non-comorbid medication-naive MDD patients and SAD patients.MethodsHigh-resolution T1-weighted images were acquired from 37 non-comorbid MDD patients, 24 non-comorbid SAD patients and 41 healthy controls (HCs). Voxel-based morphometry analysis of the GMV (corrected with a false discovery rate of p<0.001) and vertex-based analysis of cortical thickness (corrected with a clusterwise probability of p<0.001) were performed, and group differences were compared by ANOVA followed by post hoc tests.OutcomesRelative to the HCs, both the MDD patients and SAD patients showed the following results: GMV reductions in the bilateral orbital frontal cortex (OFC), putamen, and thalamus; cortical thickening in the bilateral medial prefrontal cortex, posterior dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, insular cortex, left temporal pole, and right superior parietal cortex; and cortical thinning in the left lateral OFC and bilateral rostral middle frontal cortex. In addition, MDD patients specifically showed a greater thickness in the left fusiform gyrus and right lateral occipital cortex and a thinner thickness in the bilateral lingual and left cuneus. SAD patients specifically showed a thinner cortical thickness in the right precentral cortex.InterpretationOur results indicate that MDD and SAD share common patterns of gray matter abnormalities in the orbitofrontal-striatal-thalamic circuit, salience network and dorsal attention network. These consistent structural differences in the two patient groups may contribute to the broad spectrum of emotional, cognitive and behavioral disturbances observed in MDD patients and SAD patients. In addition, we found disorder-specific involvement of the visual processing regions in MDD and the precentral cortex in SAD. These findings provide new evidence regarding the shared and specific neuropathological mechanisms that underlie MDD and SAD.

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A pilot study of gray matter volume changes associated with paroxetine treatment and response in social anxiety disorder.

Publications

A pilot study of gray matter volume changes associated with paroxetine treatment and response in social anxiety disorder.

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