Ventromedial prefrontal cortex activity and pathological worry in generalised anxiety disorder

E Via; MA Fullana; X Goldberg; D Tinoco-González; I Martínez-Zalacaín; C Soriano-Mas; CG Davey; JM Menchón; B Straube; T Kircher; J Pujol; N Cardoner; BJ Harrison

Journal article

Ventromedial prefrontal cortex activity and pathological worry in generalised anxiety disorder

E Via, MA Fullana, X Goldberg, D Tinoco-González, I Martínez-Zalacaín, C Soriano-Mas, CG Davey, JM Menchón, B Straube, T Kircher, J Pujol, N Cardoner, BJ Harrison

British Journal of Psychiatry | CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS | Published : 2018

DOI: 10.1192/bjp.2018.65

Abstract

Background Pathological worry is a hallmark feature of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), associated with dysfunctional emotional processing. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) is involved in the regulation of such processes, but the link between vmPFC emotional responses and pathological v. adaptive worry has not yet been examined. Aims To study the association between worry and vmPFC activity evoked by the processing of learned safety and threat signals. Method In total, 27 unmedicated patients with GAD and 56 healthy controls (HC) underwent a differential fear conditioning paradigm during functional magnetic resonance imaging. Results Compared to HC, the GAD group demonstrated re..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Chris Davey Author

Ben Harrison Author

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Grants

Awarded by National Health and Medical Research Council

Funding Acknowledgements

This study was supported in part by the Carlos III Health Institute (PI12/0136, PI12/00273), a LIIRA Program Grant (WS717052) and National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) Project Grant (1025619). E.V. was supported by an Endeavour Research Fellowship, provided by the Australian government, the Department of Education (I.D. 3993_2014) and a Rio Hortega fellowship, provided by the Carlos III Health Institute (ISCIII), Spain (CM15/000839). M.A.F. was supported by the Carlos III Health Institute/FEDER, grant (PI16/00144). X.G. was supported by a grant from the Health Department of the Generalitat de Catalunya (Pla Estrategic de Recerca I Innovacio en Salut 2016-2020; SLT002/16/00254). C.S.-M.was supported by a Miguel Servet contract from the ISCIII (CPII16/00048). C.G.D. was supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (NHMRC) career development fellowship (I.D.1061757), Australia. B.S. was supported by the German Research Foundation (project numbers STR 1146/8-1). B.J.H. was supported by a (NHMRC) Clinical Career Development Fellowship (I.D. 1124472). CIBERSAM are initiatives of ISCIII.