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Amygdala response predicts trajectory of symptom reduction during Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy among adolescent girls with PTSD.

ABSTRACT: Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is the gold standard treatment for pediatric PTSD. Nonetheless, clinical outcomes in TF-CBT are highly variable, indicating a need to identify reliable predictors that allow forecasting treatment response. Here, we test the hypothesis that functional neuroimaging correlates of emotion processing predict PTSD symptom reduction during Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) among adolescent girls with PTSD. Thirty-four adolescent girls with PTSD related to physical or sexual assault were enrolled in TF-CBT, delivered in an approximately 12 session format, in an open trial. Prior to treatment, they were engaged in an implicit threat processing task during 3T fMRI, during which they viewed faces depicting fearful or neutral expressions. Among adolescent girls completing TF-CBT (n = 23), slopes of PTSD symptom trajectories during TF-CBT were significantly related to pre-treatment degree of bilateral amygdala activation while viewing fearful vs neutral images. Adolescents with less symptom reduction were characterized by greater amygdala activation to both threat and neutral images (i.e., less threat-safety discrimination), whereas adolescents with greater symptom reduction were characterized by amygdala activation only to threat images. These clinical outcome relationships with pre-treatment bilateral amygdala activation remained when controlling for possible confounding demographic or clinical variables (e.g., concurrent psychotropic medication, comorbid diagnoses). While limited by a lack of a control group, these preliminary results suggest that pre-treatment amygdala reactivity to fear stimuli, a component of neurocircuitry models of PTSD, positively predicts symptom reduction during TF-CBT among assaulted adolescent girls, providing support for an objective measure for forecasting treatment response in this vulnerable population.

SUBMITTER: Cisler JM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4826076 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Amygdala response predicts trajectory of symptom reduction during Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy among adolescent girls with PTSD.

Cisler Josh M JM Sigel Benjamin A BA Kramer Teresa L TL Smitherman Sonet S Vanderzee Karin K Pemberton Joy J Kilts Clinton D CD

Journal of psychiatric research 20150925

Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) is the gold standard treatment for pediatric PTSD. Nonetheless, clinical outcomes in TF-CBT are highly variable, indicating a need to identify reliable predictors that allow forecasting treatment response. Here, we test the hypothesis that functional neuroimaging correlates of emotion processing predict PTSD symptom reduction during Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) among adolescent girls with PTSD. Thirty-four adolescent gi ...[more]

PMID: 26522869

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Project description:BackgroundApproximately half of depressed adolescents fail to respond to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Given the variability in response, it is important to identify pretreatment characteristics that predict prognosis. Knowledge of which depressed adolescents are likely to exhibit a positive versus poor outcome to CBT may have important clinical implications (e.g., informing treatment recommendations). Emerging evidence suggests that neural reward responsiveness represents one promising predictor.MethodsAdolescents with major depressive disorder (n = 36) received CBT and completed a reward task at 3 time points (pretreatment, midtreatment and posttreatment) while 128-channel electroencephalographic data were acquired. Healthy control participants (n = 29) completed the same task at 3 corresponding time points. Analyses focused on event-related potentials linked to 2 stages of neural processing: initial response to rewards (reward positivity) and later, elaborative processing (late positive potential). Moreover, time-frequency analyses decomposed the reward positivity into 2 constituent components: reward-related delta and loss-related theta activity.ResultsMultilevel modeling revealed that greater pretreatment reward responsiveness, as measured by the late positive potential to rewards, predicted greater depressive symptom change. In addition, a group × condition × time interaction emerged for theta activity to losses, reflecting normalization of theta power in the group with major depressive disorder from baseline to posttreatment.ConclusionsAn event-related potential measure of sustained (late positive potential)-but not initial (reward positivity)-reward responsiveness predicted symptom improvement, which may help inform which depressed adolescents are most likely to benefit from CBT. In addition to alleviating depression, successful CBT may attenuate underlying neural (theta) hypersensitivity to negative outcomes in depressed youths.

Project description:Background: Network analysis has gained increasing attention as a new framework to study complex associations between symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). A number of studies have been published to investigate symptom networks on different sets of symptoms in different populations, and the findings have been inconsistent. Objective: We aimed to extend previous research by testing whether differences in PTSD symptom networks can be found in survivors of type I (single event; sudden and unexpected, high levels of acute threat) vs. type II (repeated and/or protracted; anticipated) trauma (with regard to their index trauma). Method: Participants were trauma-exposed individuals with elevated levels of PTSD symptomatology, most of whom (94%) were undergoing assessment in preparation for PTSD treatment in several treatment centres in Germany and Switzerland (n = 286 with type I and n = 187 with type II trauma). We estimated Bayesian Gaussian graphical models for each trauma group and explored group differences in the symptom network. Results: First, for both trauma types, our analyses identified the edges that were repeatedly reported in previous network studies. Second, there was decisive evidence that the two networks were generated from different multivariate normal distributions, i.e. the networks differed on a global level. Third, explorative edge-wise comparisons showed moderate or strong evidence for specific 12 edges. Edges which emerged as especially important in distinguishing the networks were between intrusions and flashbacks, highlighting the stronger positive association in the group of type II trauma survivors compared to type I survivors. Flashbacks showed a similar pattern of results in the associations with detachment and sleep problems (type II > type I). Conclusion: Our findings suggest that trauma type contributes to the heterogeneity in the symptom network. Future research on PTSD symptom networks should include this variable in the analyses to reduce heterogeneity.

Dataset Information

Amygdala response predicts trajectory of symptom reduction during Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy among adolescent girls with PTSD.

Publications

Amygdala response predicts trajectory of symptom reduction during Trauma-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy among adolescent girls with PTSD.

Similar Datasets

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