Study identifies a link between specific brain circuits and anxiety in adolescents
· News-MedicalAdolescence is a sensitive period for brain development and mental health, though the connection between the two is not fully understood. New research published in Imaging Neuroscience identifies a link between specific brain circuits and anxiety, which could become the targets of precision interventions to improve mental health outcomes in youth.
Many mental health disorders often emerge in adolescence, emphasizing the importance of understanding associations between abnormal brain development and mental health problems. Researchers at Boston Children's Hospital chose to study anxiety (including generalized and social anxiety disorders), which affects over 30% of teens in the US. They examined associations between the characteristics of brain structures and circuit organization and anxiety among a large sample of nearly 3,500 youth from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States.
"Precision psychiatry is likely to play an important role in future mental health care," said Stamoulis. "In this study, we have identified specific circuits that are implicated in anxiety, which could become the targets of precision interventions to improve short- and longer-term mental health outcomes in youth."
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