The Impacts of Functional MRI’s on Anxiety Research and Treatment

According to ScienceDaily (May 2010), Stanford University researchers have proven the theory “that fMRI signals based on elevated levels of oxygenated blood in specific parts of the brain are caused by an increase in the excitation of specific kinds of brain cells.”  While the images had always shown that something happened within the brain during various stimuli, scientists had not been able to prove it was a result of increase neuron activity therefore building upon the technology was limited.

This will help researchers build upon earlier studies such as the one conducted by Christina Fales, Ph.D. in 2008, that showed that those people suffering from high levels of anxiety had to work harder than normal with their cognitive processing, including memory and problem-solving skills.  Another study from the same year found that the part of the brain that suppresses memory, the prefrontal cortex, was activated less in the brains of those suffering from some sort of anxiety disorder.  They believe that this lower activity level is why the traumatic memories of these people remained highly painful while those with normal brain activity had been able to move past the incident.

The impact of the new research that shows that it is in fact neuron activity and not some other explanation will be tremendous in future research using functional MRI technologies.  Now that scientists know that the brain cells themselves are affected, they can build upon what is already known and develop new methods of treatment.  They also will be able to do deeper research into the varieties of anxiety disorders in order to identifiy differences between one disorder and another.

The next decade could see some radical changes made in how anxiety disorders are diagnosed as well as treated.  Science had already shown that there is a very real physiological basis for some of the symptoms of various anxiety disorders.  When the stressor signal is sent to the brain, the brain sets in motion a range of hormonal and other reactions.  The biggest block to discovering more about these reactions as they relate to anxiety disorders is that many times, there is not external stressor that triggers this physiological process.

As the technology advances and more is discovered thanks to the functional MRI research, we could perhaps see this used as a diagnostic tool in the not too distant future.  New treatments could be developed on the basis of what a functional MRI shows of the effects of medications and therapies on the brain of the sufferer.

Perhaps the most promising result would be the ending of the stigma associated with many anxiety disorders.  After all, there is a proven neurobiological effect as shown by the MRIs and now that it’s proven to be the actual neurons in the brain, how can there be a stigma attached to a disorder that has physical symptoms?