Diffusion tensor imaging in anxiety disorders

Date
2012
Authors
Ayling E.
Aghajani M.
Fouche J.-P.
Van Der Wee N.
Journal Title
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Abstract
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can be used to examine the structural integrity of regional white matter and to map white matter tracts. DTI studies have been performed in several psychiatric disorders, especially in those for which a developmental or a neuropsychiatric component was postulated. Thus far, the use of DTI has been very limited in panic disorder, social anxiety disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder, and somewhat more extensive in post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. In most anxiety disorders, the results of DTI studies are in line with other structural and functional MRI findings and can be interpreted within the frameworks of existing models for the neurocircuitry of the various disorders. DTI findings could further enrich neurobiological models for anxiety disorders, although replication is often warranted, and studies in pediatric populations are lagging behind remarkably. © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2012.
Description
Keywords
Anxiety disorders, Diffusion tensor imaging, DTI, Generalized anxiety disorder, Internalizing disorders, Neurocircuitry, Obsessive-compulsive disorder, Panic disorder, Post-traumatic stress disorder, Social anxiety disorder, Trait anxiety
Citation
Current Psychiatry Reports
14
3
197
202