Frontal cortex absolute beta power measurement in Panic Disorder with Agoraphobia patients

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Panic disorder patients are hypervigilant to danger cues and highly sensitive to unpredictable aversive events, what leads to anticipatory anxiety, that is one key component of the disorder maintenance. Prefrontal cortex seems to be involved in these processes and beta band activity may be related to the involvement of top-down processing, whose function is supposed to be disrupted in pathological anxiety. The objective of this study was to measure frontal absolute beta-power (ABP) with qEEG in panic disorder and agoraphobia (PDA) patients compared to healthy controls. Methods: qEEG data were acquired while participants (24 PDA patients and 21 controls) watched a computer simulation (CS), consisting of moments classified as “high anxiety” (HAM) and “low anxiety” (LAM). qEEG data were also acquired during two rest conditions, before and after the computer simulation display. The statistical analysis was performed by means of a repeated measure analysis of variance (two-way ANOVA) and ABP was the dependent variable of interest. The main hypothesis was that a higher ABP in PDA patients would be found related to controls. Moreover, in HAM the ABP would be different than in LAM. Results: the main finding was an interaction between the moment and group for the electrodes F7, F8, Fp1 and Fp2. We observed a higher ABP in PDA patients when compared to controls while watching the CS. The higher beta-power in the frontal cortex for the PDA group may reflect a state of high excitability, together with anticipatory anxiety and maintenance of hypervigilant cognitive state. Conclusions: our results suggest a possible deficiency in top-down processing reflected by a higher ABP in the PDA group while watching the CS and they highlight the recruitment of prefrontal regions during the exposure to anxiogenic stimuli. Limitations: the small sample, the wide age range of participants and the use of psychotropic medications by most of the PDA patients.