Diffusion tensor imaging studies on chinese patients with social anxiety disorder.

Changjian Qiu,Jingna Zhang,Wei Zhang,Yuan Feng,Yajing Meng,Ruizhi Wu,Xiaojing Nie,Xiaoqi Huang,Qiyong Gong,Chunyan Zhu

doi:10.1155/2014/860658

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore white-matter disruption in social anxiety disorder (SAD) patients by using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and to investigate the relationship between cerebral abnormalities and the severity of the symptoms. Eighteen SAD patients and age- and gender-matched healthy controls were recruited. DTI scans were performed to measure fractional anisotropy (FA) and apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) for each subject. We used voxel-based analysis to determine the differences of FA and ADC values between the two groups with two-sample t-tests. The SAD patient showed significantly decreased FA values in the white matter of the left insula, left inferior frontal gyrus, left middle temporal gyrus, and left inferior parietal gyrus and increased ADC values in the left insula, bilateral inferior frontal gyrus, bilateral middle temporal gyrus, and left inferior parietal gyrus. In SAD patients, we observed a significant negative correlation between FA values in the left insula and the total LSAS scores and a positive correlation between the ADC values in the left inferior frontal gyrus and the total LSAS scores. Above results suggested that white-matter microstructural changes might contribute to the neuropathology of SAD.

Highlights

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a marked and persistent fear of social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others
We found a negative correlation between the decreased fractional anisotropy (FA) values in the left insula and the total Liebowitz social anxiety scale (LSAS) scores of the SAD patients (r = −0.504, P = 0.033) and a trend of negative correlation between FA values and the left inferior frontal gyrus (r = −0.414, P = 0.087); there was a positive correlation between the increased apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values in the left inferior frontal gyrus and the total LSAS scores of the SAD patients (r = 0.558, P = 0.016) (Figure 3)
Our study reported abnormalities in the white matter of the middle temporal gyrus and inferior parietal gyrus in subjects with SAD

Summary

Introduction

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) is a marked and persistent fear of social or performance situations in which the person is exposed to unfamiliar people or to possible scrutiny by others. SAD can be disabling in some patients, leading to reduced likelihood of employment, social isolation, functional disability, and dissatisfaction with life and health [1]. Data obtained by the National Comorbidity Survey indicate that the adult lifetime prevalence of SAD is 13.3% [2]. Recent research indicated that the 12-month prevalence rate of SAD was 2.48%∼7.9% and that the lifetime prevalence was about 3.8%∼14.4% [3, 4]. The highly comorbid nature of SAD, which often occurs along with depression, panic disorder, and alcohol abuse, is well established [5, 6]

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