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Cortical Thickness and Anxiety Symptoms Among Cognitively Normal Elderly Persons: The Mayo Clinic Study of Aging
Anna Pink1, Scott A Przybelski1, Janina Krell-Roesch1
1From the Mayo Clinic Translational Neuroscience and Aging Program, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Ariz. (AP, JK-R, KAS, YEG); the International Clinical Research Center, Brno, Czech Republic (GBS); the Division of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics, Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. (SAP); the Division of Epidemiology, Department of Health Sciences Research, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. (ROR, MMM, RCP, YEG); the Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. (CRJ); the Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. (ROR, DSK, RCP); the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Ariz. (YEG); and the Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic, Scottsdale, Ariz. (YEG).
Abstract:
The authors conducted a cross-sectional study to investigate the association between anxiety symptoms and cortical thickness, as well as amygdalar volume. A total of 1,505 cognitively normal participants, aged ≥70 years, were recruited from the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging in Olmsted County, Minnesota, on whom Beck Anxiety Inventory and 3T brain MRI data were available. Even though the effect sizes were small in this community-dwelling group of participants, anxiety symptoms were associated with reduced global cortical thickness and reduced thickness within the frontal and temporal cortex. However, after additionally adjusting for comorbid depressive symptoms, only the association between anxiety symptoms and reduced insular thickness remained significant.
