Brain blood flow in anxiety disorders. OCD, panic disorder with agoraphobia, and post-traumatic stress disorder on 99mTcHMPAO single photon emission tomography (SPET).
BACKGROUND
We compared regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in three groups of patients with DSM-III-R anxiety disorders.


METHODS
Fifteen patients with obsessive -compulsive disorder (OCD), 15 with panic disorder with agoraphobia (PA), and 16 with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a similar group of healthy controls were assessed on brain-dedicated high-resolution SPET.


RESULTS
MANOVA revealed significant rCBF differences between diagnostic groups (F = 4.4; d.f. = 3, 57; P = 0.007) and between cerebral regions (F = 6.4; d.f. = 1, 57; P = 0.01) in OCD and PTSD compared with PA and healthy controls, limited to bilateral superior frontal cortices and right caudate nuclei. Whole brain blood flow correlated positively with anxiety (r = 0.24, n = 46, P = 0.05). Beck depression scores correlated significantly negatively with left caudate rCBF (r = -0.24, n = 46, P = 0.05) and right caudate rCBF (r = -0.31, n = 46, P = 0.02). PTSD syndrome severity correlated significantly negatively with the left caudate (r = -0.49, n = 16, P = 0.03) and with right caudate rCBF (r = -0.7, n = 16, P = 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
Functional rCBF differences in anxiety disorders could relate to repetitive, intrusive, distressing mental activity, prominent in both OCD and PTSD.
Lucey
J V
JV
St Bartholomew's, London. j.v.lucey@mds.qmw.ac.uk
Costa
D C
DC
Adshead
G
G
Deahl
M
M
Busatto
G
G
Gacinovic
S
S
Travis
M
M
Pilowsky
L
L
Ell
P J
PJ
Marks
I M
IM
Kerwin
R W
RW
D000328:Adult; D000379:Agoraphobia / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D010091:Oximes; D016584:Panic Disorder / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology*; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon
D015609:Organotechnetium Compounds; D010091:Oximes