title: Neural Reactivity to Angry Faces Predicts Treatment Response in Pediatric Anxiety.
abstract: Although cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (CBT) and pharmacotherapy are evidence-based treatments for pediatric anxiety, many youth with anxiety disorders fail to respond to these treatments. Given limitations of clinical measures in predicting treatment response, identifying neural predictors is timely. In this study, 35 anxious youth (ages 7-19 years) completed an emotional face-matching task during which the late positive potential (LPP), an event-related potential (ERP) component that indexes sustained attention towards emotional stimuli, was measured. Following the ERP measurement, youth received CBT or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) treatment, and the LPP was examined as a predictor of treatment response. Findings indicated that, accounting for pre-treatment anxiety severity, neural reactivity to emotional faces predicted anxiety severity post- CBT and SSRI treatment such that enhanced electrocortical response to angry faces was associated with better treatment response. An enhanced LPP to angry faces may predict treatment response insofar as it may reflect greater emotion dysregulation or less avoidance and/or enhanced engagement with environmental stimuli in general, including with treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60608, USA. nb243610@ohio.edu.|Department of Psychology, Ohio University, Athens, OH, 45701, USA. nb243610@ohio.edu.|Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1747 W. Roosevelt Rd., Rm. 277, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA. nb243610@ohio.edu.
authors.forename: Nora
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bunford
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60608, USA.
authors.forename: Autumn
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kujawa
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Kate D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Fitzgerald
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.|Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
authors.forename: James E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Swain
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Gregory L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Hanna
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Elizabeth
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Koschmann
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60608, USA.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60608, USA.
authors.forename: Sucheta
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Connolly
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.|Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Monk
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 60608, USA.|Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109, USA.|Departments of Psychology and Anatomy & Cell Biology, and Graduate Program in Neuroscience, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, 6012, USA.
authors.forename: K Luan
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Phan
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000786:Anger / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D001007:Anxiety / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D000066499:Facial Recognition / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors
keywords: Anxiety; Event-related potential (ERP); Late positive potential (LPP); Treatment response