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Neurostructural abnormalities in pediatric anxiety disorders
Jeffrey R Strawn1, Lisa Hamm2, Daniel A Fitzgerald2
1Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Cincinnati, College of Medicine, Cincinnati, OH, United States; Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Department of Pediatrics, Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Cincinnati, OH, United States.
Abstract:
Functional neuroimaging studies have consistently demonstrated abnormalities in fear and threat processing systems in youth with anxiety disorders; however, the structural neuroanatomy of these systems in children and adolescents remains largely unknown. Using voxel-based morphometry (VBM), gray matter volumes were compared between 38 medication-free patients with anxiety disorders (generalized anxiety disorder; social phobia; separation anxiety disorder, mean age: 14.4±3 years) and 27 comparison subjects (mean age: 14.8±4 years). Compared to healthy subjects, youth with anxiety disorders had larger gray matter volumes in the dorsal anterior cingulate and had decreased gray matter volumes in the inferior frontal gyrus (ventrolateral prefrontal cortex), postcentral gyrus, and cuneus/precuneus. These data suggest the presence of structural differences in regions previously implicated in the processing and regulation of fear in pediatric patients with anxiety disorders.
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