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Neural mechanisms of symptom improvements in generalized anxiety disorder following mindfulness training()()

Mindfulness training aims to impact emotion regulation. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms can be successfully addressed through mindfulness-based interventions. This preliminary study is the first to investigate neural mechanisms of symptom improvements in GAD following mindfulness trainin...

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Autores principales: Hölzel, Britta K., Hoge, Elizabeth A., Greve, Douglas N., Gard, Tim, Creswell, J. David, Brown, Kirk Warren, Barrett, Lisa Feldman, Schwartz, Carl, Vaitl, Dieter, Lazar, Sara W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3777795/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24179799
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2013.03.011
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author Hölzel, Britta K.
Hoge, Elizabeth A.
Greve, Douglas N.
Gard, Tim
Creswell, J. David
Brown, Kirk Warren
Barrett, Lisa Feldman
Schwartz, Carl
Vaitl, Dieter
Lazar, Sara W.
author_facet Hölzel, Britta K.
Hoge, Elizabeth A.
Greve, Douglas N.
Gard, Tim
Creswell, J. David
Brown, Kirk Warren
Barrett, Lisa Feldman
Schwartz, Carl
Vaitl, Dieter
Lazar, Sara W.
author_sort Hölzel, Britta K.
collection PubMed
description Mindfulness training aims to impact emotion regulation. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms can be successfully addressed through mindfulness-based interventions. This preliminary study is the first to investigate neural mechanisms of symptom improvements in GAD following mindfulness training. Furthermore, we compared brain activation between GAD patients and healthy participants at baseline. 26 patients with a current DSM-IV GAD diagnosis were randomized to an 8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR, N = 15) or a stress management education (SME, N = 11) active control program. 26 healthy participants were included for baseline comparisons. BOLD response was assessed with fMRI during affect labeling of angry and neutral facial expressions. At baseline, GAD patients showed higher amygdala activation than healthy participants in response to neutral, but not angry faces, suggesting that ambiguous stimuli reveal stronger reactivity in GAD patients. In patients, amygdala activation in response to neutral faces decreased following both interventions. BOLD response in ventrolateral prefrontal regions (VLPFC) showed greater increase in MBSR than SME participants. Functional connectivity between amygdala and PFC regions increased significantly pre- to post-intervention within the MBSR, but not SME group. Both, change in VLPFC activation and amygdala–prefrontal connectivity were correlated with change in Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) scores, suggesting clinical relevance of these changes. Amygdala–prefrontal connectivity turned from negative coupling (typically seen in down-regulation of emotions), to positive coupling; potentially suggesting a unique mechanism of mindfulness. Findings suggest that in GAD, mindfulness training leads to changes in fronto-limbic areas crucial for the regulation of emotion; these changes correspond with reported symptom improvements.
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spelling pubmed-37777952013-10-31 Neural mechanisms of symptom improvements in generalized anxiety disorder following mindfulness training()() Hölzel, Britta K. Hoge, Elizabeth A. Greve, Douglas N. Gard, Tim Creswell, J. David Brown, Kirk Warren Barrett, Lisa Feldman Schwartz, Carl Vaitl, Dieter Lazar, Sara W. Neuroimage Clin Article Mindfulness training aims to impact emotion regulation. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms can be successfully addressed through mindfulness-based interventions. This preliminary study is the first to investigate neural mechanisms of symptom improvements in GAD following mindfulness training. Furthermore, we compared brain activation between GAD patients and healthy participants at baseline. 26 patients with a current DSM-IV GAD diagnosis were randomized to an 8-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR, N = 15) or a stress management education (SME, N = 11) active control program. 26 healthy participants were included for baseline comparisons. BOLD response was assessed with fMRI during affect labeling of angry and neutral facial expressions. At baseline, GAD patients showed higher amygdala activation than healthy participants in response to neutral, but not angry faces, suggesting that ambiguous stimuli reveal stronger reactivity in GAD patients. In patients, amygdala activation in response to neutral faces decreased following both interventions. BOLD response in ventrolateral prefrontal regions (VLPFC) showed greater increase in MBSR than SME participants. Functional connectivity between amygdala and PFC regions increased significantly pre- to post-intervention within the MBSR, but not SME group. Both, change in VLPFC activation and amygdala–prefrontal connectivity were correlated with change in Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) scores, suggesting clinical relevance of these changes. Amygdala–prefrontal connectivity turned from negative coupling (typically seen in down-regulation of emotions), to positive coupling; potentially suggesting a unique mechanism of mindfulness. Findings suggest that in GAD, mindfulness training leads to changes in fronto-limbic areas crucial for the regulation of emotion; these changes correspond with reported symptom improvements. Elsevier 2013-03-25 /pmc/articles/PMC3777795/ /pubmed/24179799 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2013.03.011 Text en © 2013 The Authors http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Article
Hölzel, Britta K.
Hoge, Elizabeth A.
Greve, Douglas N.
Gard, Tim
Creswell, J. David
Brown, Kirk Warren
Barrett, Lisa Feldman
Schwartz, Carl
Vaitl, Dieter
Lazar, Sara W.
Neural mechanisms of symptom improvements in generalized anxiety disorder following mindfulness training()()
title Neural mechanisms of symptom improvements in generalized anxiety disorder following mindfulness training()()
title_full Neural mechanisms of symptom improvements in generalized anxiety disorder following mindfulness training()()
title_fullStr Neural mechanisms of symptom improvements in generalized anxiety disorder following mindfulness training()()
title_full_unstemmed Neural mechanisms of symptom improvements in generalized anxiety disorder following mindfulness training()()
title_short Neural mechanisms of symptom improvements in generalized anxiety disorder following mindfulness training()()
title_sort neural mechanisms of symptom improvements in generalized anxiety disorder following mindfulness training()()
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3777795/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24179799
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nicl.2013.03.011
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