Publications

Neural predictors of cognitive-behavior therapy outcome in anxiety-related disorders: a meta-analysis of task-based fMRI studies

authors:

  • Picó-Pérez, M.
    • ,
  • Fullana, M.A.
    • ,
  • Albajes-Eizagirre, A.
    • ,
  • Vega, D.
    • ,
  • Marco-Pallarés, J.
    • ,
  • Vilar, A.
    • ,
  • Chamorro, J.
    • ,
  • Felmingham, K.L.
    • ,
  • Harrison, B.J.
    • ,
  • Radua, J.
    • ,
  • Soriano-Mas, C.
    • (2023)

Abstract

Background: Cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT) is a well-established first-line intervention for anxiety-related disorders, including specific phobia, social anxiety disorder, panic disorder/agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Several neural predictors of CBT outcome for anxiety-related disorders have been proposed, but previous results are inconsistent.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies investigating whole-brain predictors of CBT outcome in anxiety-related disorders (17 studies, n = 442).

Results: Across different tasks, we observed that brain response in a network of regions involved in salience and interoception processing, encompassing fronto-insular (the right inferior frontal gyrus-anterior insular cortex) and fronto-limbic (the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex-dorsal anterior cingulate cortex) cortices was strongly associated with a positive CBT outcome.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that there are robust neural predictors of CBT outcome in anxiety-related disorders that may eventually lead (probably in combination with other data) to develop personalized approaches for the treatment of these mental disorders.