Abstract
Background: The neurodevelopment of childhood anxiety disorders is not well understood.
Basic research has implicated the amygdala and circuits related to these nuclei as
being central to several aspects of fear and fear-related behaviors in animals.
Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging was used to measure amygdala volumes and comparison
brain regions in 12 child and adolescent subjects with generalized anxiety disorder
and 24 comparison subjects. Groups were matched on age, sex, height, and handedness
and were also similar on measures of weight, socioeconomic status, and full scale
IQ.
Results: Right and total amygdala volumes were significantly larger in generalized
anxiety disorder subjects. Intracranial, cerebral, cerebral gray and white matter,
temporal lobe, hippocampal, and basal ganglia volumes and measures of the midsagittal
area of the corpus callosum did not differ between groups.
Conclusions: Although these data are preliminary and from a small sample, the results
are consistent with a line of thinking that alterations in the structure and function
of the amygdala may be associated with pediatric generalized anxiety disorder.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
January 28,
2000
Received in revised form:
January 19,
2000
Received:
November 23,
1999
Identification
Copyright
© 2000 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
