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Category: Project

Description: This project examines relationships among anxiety, brain function, and treatment in youth. The project includes a randomized controlled trial, where medication-free youth receive treatment for an anxiety disorder. These youths all receive cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and half are randomized to an active form of Attention Bias Modification Training (ABMT), whereas the other half are randomized to an inactive form of ABMT. The project also includes collection of data in health youth matched at a group level on age, gender, and intelligence with the anxiety disorder group. All subjects receive two assessment of brain function with the same fMRI version of the dot-probe task. The study tests three sets of hypotheses, all designed to replicate or extend findings in White et al. Am J Psychiatry 2017. The first set of hypotheses examine associations between brain function and anxiety, using the dot-probe task. These involve two sets of analyses, one that examines relationships between brain function and anxiety diagnosis using a categorical approach as well as a second that examines relationships between brain function and anxiety symptoms using a continuous approach. The second hypothesis compares the response to the active and inactive forms of ABMT in the treatment-seeking patients. The third set of hypotheses examine relationships between brain function on the dot-probe task and treatment outcome among the patients.