Science News about Anxiety Disorders (All Items)

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NIMH’s Dr. Aleksandra Vicentic: Sleep Brain Wave Key to Conquering Fear Memories: Science Update • March 08, 2013

An NIMH-funded research study in rats identifies a specific group of cells in the brainstem whose activation during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep helped in eradicating unwanted memories, paving the way for future therapeutics for these disorders.
Brain Imaging Predicts Psychotherapy Success in Patients with Social Anxiety Disorder: Science Update • February 01, 2013

Brain imaging might soon predict which treatment options would work best for patients with social phobia.
Switching Off a Specific Brain Region Can Alter Ingrained Habits in Rats: Science Update • November 27, 2012

Old habits may die hard, but we might be able to turn them off by targeting a specific brain region. Such a discovery could help us find better ways of controlling addiction or certain mental disorders like obsessive compulsive disorder.
Brain Hubs Boil When Hoarders Face Pitching Their Own Stuff: Press Release • August 09, 2012

In patients with hoarding disorder, parts of a decision-making brain circuit under-activated when dealing with others’ possessions, but over-activated when deciding whether to keep or discard their own things.
Pattern Recognition Technology May Help Predict Future Mental Illness in Teens: Science Update • April 02, 2012

Computer programs that automatically spot patterns in data may help predict a person’s risk for future mental disorders.
Computer-Based Treatment Eases Anxiety Symptoms in Children: Science Update • March 13, 2012

Results from a small clinical trial suggest that it might be possible, using computer-based training, to help children with anxiety shift their attention away from threat.
National Survey Dispels Notion that Social Phobia is the Same as Shyness: Science Update • October 17, 2011

Normal human shyness is not being confused with the psychiatric anxiety disorder known as social phobia, according to an NIMH survey comparing the prevalence rates of the two among U.S. youth.
Adding Psychotherapy to Medication Treatment Improves Outcomes in Pediatric OCD: Science Update • September 21, 2011

Youth with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) who are already taking antidepressant medication benefit by adding a type of psychotherapy called cognitive behavior therapy (CBT), according to an NIMH-funded study published September 21, 2011, in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Teen Brain Less Discerning of Threat vs. Safety, More Vulnerable to Stress: Science Update • April 28, 2011

Teen brains rely on early-maturing brain structures that process fear differently than adult brains, according to an NIMH-funded study. As a result, teens may have more difficulty than adults in differentiating between danger and safety, leading to more pervasive stress and anxiety. The study was published online ahead of print on February 23, 2011, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Light Switches Brain Pathway On-and-Off to Dissect How Anxiety Works: Science Update • April 18, 2011

Scientists, for the first time, have switched anxiety on-and-off in active animals by shining light at a brain pathway. Instinctively reclusive mice suddenly began exploring normally forbidding open spaces when a blue laser activated the pathway – and retreated into a protected area when it dimmed. By contrast, anxiety-like behaviors increased when an amber laser inhibited the same pathway.
Nurturing Newborn Neurons Sharpens Minds in Mice: Press Release • April 04, 2011

Adult mice engineered to have more newborn neurons in their brain memory hub excelled at accurately discriminating between similar experiences – an ability that declines with normal aging and in some anxiety disorders. Boosting such neurogenesis in the adult hippocampus also produced antidepressant-like effects when combined with exercise, in the study funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Enzyme Enhances, Erases Long-term Memories in Rats: Press Release • March 03, 2011

Even long after it is formed, a memory in rats can be enhanced or erased by increasing or decreasing the activity of a brain enzyme, say researchers supported, in part, by the National Institutes of Health.
Brain Activity Patterns in Anxiety-Prone People Suggest Deficits in Handling Fear: Science Update • February 09, 2011

Anxiety as a personality trait appears to be linked to the functioning of two key brain regions involved in fear and its suppression, according to an NIMH-funded study. Differences in how these two regions function and interact may help explain the wide range of symptoms seen in people who have anxiety disorders. The study was published February 10, 2011 in the journal, Neuron.
Stress Hormone Receptors Less Adaptive in Female Brain: Science Update • August 09, 2010

A study in rats has revealed striking gender difference in the brain’s stress response that could shed light on women’s proneness to mood and anxiety disorders. Female rat brain cells were more sensitive to a key stress hormone than males’, which could adapt to the hormone in a way female cells couldn’t.
Drug Substitutes for Training in Rats, Inducing a Memory of Safety: Press Release • June 04, 2010

Researchers have found a way to pharmacologically induce a memory of safety in the brain of rats, mimicking the effect of training. The finding suggests possibilities for new treatments for individuals suffering from anxiety disorders.
Coordinated Treatment Approach Improves Anxiety Symptoms: Science Update • May 18, 2010

A coordinated, multi-component treatment approach was more effective in treating anxiety disorders than usual care found in primary care settings, according to an NIMH-funded study published May 19, 2010, in a special issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association devoted to mental health.
Gene’s Impact on Forgetting a Fear-Based Memory Same in Humans and Mice: Science Update • March 05, 2010

Both humans and mice carrying a variant of a gene that plays a role in memory were slow to learn to forget a fear-based memory. The parallels in gene effects observed in mice and humans in this work means that investigation using the mouse model can provide insights into effects in humans; results may inform treatment approaches to anxiety disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder.
Non-Invasive Technique Blocks a Conditioned Fear in Humans: Press Release • December 09, 2009

Scientists have for the first time selectively blocked a conditioned fear memory in humans with a behavioral manipulation. Participants remained free of the fear memory for at least a year. The research builds on emerging evidence from animal studies that reactivating an emotional memory opens a 6-hour window of opportunity in which a training procedure can alter it.
Brain Emotion Circuit Sparks as Teen Girls Size Up Peers: Press Release • July 15, 2009

What is going on in teenagers’ brains as their drive for peer approval begins to eclipse their family affiliations? Brain scans of teens sizing each other up reveal an emotion circuit activating more in girls as they grow older, but not in boys. The study by Daniel Pine, M.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of National Institutes of Health, and colleagues, shows how emotion circuitry diverges in the male and female brain during a developmental stage in which girls are at increased risk for developing mood and anxiety disorders.
New Silvio O. Conte Centers Address Brain Development, Disorders: Science Update • March 18, 2009
With a mandate to use innovative, multidisciplinary research approaches to address important mental health questions, four newly funded centers have begun investigations of schizophrenia, brain development, and adolescent mood disorders.
Anxious and Depressed Teens and Adults: Same Version of Mood Gene, Different Brain Reactions: Science Update • December 02, 2008
An NIMH study using brain imaging shows that some anxious and depressed adolescents react differently from adult patients when looking at frightening faces.
Cells May Provide Target for New Anxiety Medications: Science Update • November 06, 2008
A specific population of brain cells could provide a target for developing new medications aimed at helping people learn to mute the fears underlying anxiety disorders, according to NIMH-supported scientists.
Anxious and Healthy Adolescents Respond Differently to an Anxiety-provoking Situation: Science Update • November 05, 2008
Brain scans show heightened activity among anxious adolescents exposed to an anxiety-provoking situation when compared with normal controls, according to an NIMH study published in the November 2008 issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Study Identifies Three Effective Treatments for Childhood Anxiety Disorders: Press Release • October 30, 2008
Treatment that combines a certain type of psychotherapy with an antidepressant medication is most likely to help children with anxiety disorders, but each of the treatments alone is also effective.
Emotion-Regulating Circuit Weakened in Borderline Personality Disorder: Science Update • October 02, 2008
Differences in the working tissue of the brain, called grey matter, have been linked to impaired functioning of an emotion-regulating circuit in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD).
Anxious Youth Have Disturbed Brain Responses When Looking at Angry Faces: Science Update • June 20, 2008
When looking at angry faces so quickly that they are hardly aware of seeing them, youth with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) have unchecked activity in the brain’s fear center, say NIMH researchers.
Imaging Identifies Brain Regions and Chemicals Underlying Mood Disorders; May Lead to Better Treatments: Science Update • May 06, 2008
WASHINGTON, DC, May 6 — Recently developed imaging techniques allow the mapping of the brain circuits and chemical systems believed responsible for a range of mood abnormalities including depression and bipolar disorder, and hold promise for improved treatments, scientists say.
Medication-Enhanced Learning in Therapy Hailed as “Paradigm Shift” for Anxiety: Science Update • May 01, 2008
A medication that enhances learning, taken just before an exposure therapy session, may aid cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for anxiety disorders, say NIMH-funded researchers, who adapted the technique from studies in rats.
Human Brain Appears “Hard-Wired” for Hierarchy: Press Release • April 23, 2008
Human imaging studies have for the first time identified brain circuitry associated with social status, according to researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes of Health. They found that different brain areas are activated when a person moves up or down in a pecking order – or simply views perceived social superiors or inferiors. Circuitry activated by important events responded to a potential change in hierarchical status as much as it did to winning money.
Journal Highlights Effectiveness of Research Based Psychotherapies for Youth: Science Update • April 15, 2008
Reviews of the current research on psychosocial and behavioral therapies, or psychotherapies, for children and adolescents found a number of "well established" and "probably efficacious" treatments for many mental disorders. For example, six were "probably efficacious" for anxiety disorders, and two were "well established" for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to scientists funded by NIMH and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, divisions of the National Institutes of Health.
Co-occurring Anxiety Complicates Treatment Response for Those with Major Depression: Science Update • February 25, 2008
People with major depression accompanied by high levels of anxiety are significantly less likely to benefit from antidepressant medication than those without anxiety, according to a study based on data from the NIMH-funded Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study. The study was published online ahead of print in January 2008, in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Tomorrow’s Antidepressants: Skip the Serotonin Boost?: Science Update • February 14, 2008
New research adds to evidence of potentially better molecular targets in the brain to treat depression and other mental disorders, according to NIMH-funded scientists.
Behavioral Therapy Effectively Treats Children with Social Phobia: Science Update • December 17, 2007
A behavioral therapy designed to treat children diagnosed with social phobia helped them overcome more of their symptoms than the antidepressant fluoxetine (Prozac).
New Social Neuroscience Grants to Help Unravel Autism, Anxiety Disorders: Science Update • October 10, 2007
How genes and the environment shape the brain circuitry underlying social behavior is among the questions being addressed by three newly NIMH-funded studies.
New Study Will Examine Effects of Excluding Anti-anxiety Medications in Medicare Part D Coverage: Science Update • June 22, 2007
A new research grant funded by NIMH will examine the costs and benefits of excluding a commonly prescribed class of anti-anxiety medications—benzodiazepines—from coverage in the new Medicare Part D program. Medicare Part D, the prescription drug coverage plan for people insured by Medicare, went into effect in January 2006.
Half of Adults With Anxiety Disorders Had Psychiatric Diagnoses in Youth: Science Update • February 07, 2007
About half of adults with an anxiety disorder had symptoms of some type of psychiatric illness by age 15, a NIMH-funded study shows.
Obesity Linked with Mood and Anxiety Disorders: Science Update • July 03, 2006
Results of an NIMH-funded study show that nearly one out of four cases of obesity is associated with a mood or anxiety disorder, but the causal relationship and complex interplay between the two is still unclear.
Intermittent Explosive Disorder Affects up to 16 Million Americans: Press Release • June 05, 2006
A little-known mental disorder marked by episodes of unwarranted anger is more common than previously thought, a study funded by NIMH has found.
Gene Knockout Scores a Fearless Mouse: Press Release • November 22, 2005
Knocking out a gene in the brain's fear hub creates mice unperturbed by situations that would normally trigger instinctive or learned fear responses, researchers funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health have discovered.
Rat Brain’s Executive Hub Quells Alarm Center if Stress is Controllable: Press Release • February 11, 2005
Treatments for mood and anxiety disorders are thought to work, in part, by helping patients control the stresses in their lives.
Creation of New Neurons Critical to Antidepressant Action in Mice: Press Release • August 07, 2003
Blocking the formation of neurons in the hippocampus blocks the behavioral effects of antidepressants in mice, say researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
NIMH Awards Howard University $6.5 Million: Press Release • January 25, 2002
Howard University Hospital Department of Psychiatry in the College of Medicine (HUCM) has been awarded $6.5 million from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) for a five-year project to implement and develop research studies pertaining to mood and anxiety disorders.