Science News about Anxiety Disorders

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.