Smaller amygdala is associated with anxiety in patients with panic disorder

Abstract

Aims: Anxiety a core feature of panic disorder, is linked to function of the amygdala. Volume alterations in the brain of patients with panic disorder have previously been reported, but there has been no report of amygdala volume association with anxiety.Methods: Volumes of hippocampus and amygdala were manually measured using magnetic resonance imaging obtained from 27 patients with panic disorder and 30 healthy comparison subjects. In addition the amygdala was focused on, applying small volume correction to optimized voxel-based morphometry (VBM). State-Trait Anxiety Inventory and the NEO Personality Inventory Revised were also used to evaluate anxiety. Results: Amygdala volumes in both hemisphereswere significantly smaller in patients with panic disorder compared with control subjects (left: t = -2.248, d.f. = 55, P = 0.029; right: t = -2.892, d.f. = 55, P = 0.005). VBM showed that structural alteration in the panic disorder group occurred on the corticomedial nuclear group within the right amygdala (coordinates [x,y,z (mm)]: [26,-6,-16], Z score = 3.92, family-wise error-corrected P = 0.002). The state anxiety was negatively correlated with the left amygdala volume in patients with panic disorder (r = -0.545, P = 0.016).Conclusions: These findings suggested that the smaller volume of the amygdala may be associated with anxiety in panic disorder. Of note, the smaller subregion in the amygdala estimated on VBM could correspond to the corticomedial nuclear group including the central nucleus, which may play a crucial role in panic attack.

The changes in brain metabolism in people with activated brown adipose tissue: A PET study

“…A voxel-wise comparison analyzes each voxel as effectively as another with the advantage of being spatially unbiased. The use of an SVC in an SPM analysis is widely accepted and can be used when there is prior knowledge or consensus on an activation effect of a particular region instead of the entire brain (Hayano et al, 2009;Ibarretxe-Bilbao et al, 2009;Joo et al, 2004;Turkheimer et al, 2004). Even applying the SVC for hypothalamic regions and lowering the significance thresholds to P b 0.01, we found no differences between the two groups.…”

Gray Matter Deficits in Panic Disorder

“…6Y8,10,11,25Y27 Two studies were excluded owing to the consideration of the possible bias from only 1 region-of-interest selection in the designs of these studies, which might confound the result of the meta-analysis. 26,27 The other 6 reports 6Y8, 10,11,25 were enrolled in this meta-analysis. The detailed information of subjects, method, and results is shown in Table 1.…”

Individual differences in the Behavioral Inhibition System are associated with orbitofrontal cortex and precuneus gray matter volume

“…Besides healthy individuals, structural abnormalities in the OFC have been found in patients with affective (Bremner et al, 2002;Lacerda et al, 2004) and anxiety disorders (Hayano et al, 2009;Roppongi et al, 2010;Sobanski et al, 2010). A reduced regional brain volume in the OFC has been related to reduced gyrification and anxiety-related traits in panic disorder (Roppongi et al, 2010).…”

“…On the other hand, other BIS-related traits have revealed contrary results. The anxiety trait from the STAI-T has been associated with decreased volume of the amygdala and the parahippocampal areas (Hayano et al, 2009;Spampinato, Wood, De Simone, & Grafman, 2009). Besides, harm avoidance has shown decreased hippocampal volumes associated with its related individual differences in wide sample studies (Yamasue et al, 2008), as well as positive correlations with the left amygdala volume (Iidaka et al, 2006).…”