Brain activity in social phobia. (Clinical Capsules).Response to the treatment of social phobia with either citalopram citalopram /ci·tal·o·pram/ (si-tal´o-pram) 1. an antidepressant compound used in the treatment of major depressive disorder, administered orally as the hydrobromide. 2. or cognitive-behavioral group therapy is associated with the suppression of amygdalar-limbic brain activity, said Thomas Furmark, Ph.D., of Uppsala (Sweden) University and associates. The PET scans of six patients who received citalopram and six patients who received cognitive-behavioral group therapy showed similar regional cerebral blood flow when the patients were given water labeled with (15) O. Four patients in each group responded to treatment. Before and after 9 weeks of treatment, each patient gave a speech to an audience during a PET scan (Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 59[5]:425-33, 2002). The responders in the citalopram and cognitive-behavioral therapy groups had sharper decreases in blood flow--relative to the nonresponders--in the right amygdala amygdala /amyg·da·la/ (ah-mig´dah-lah) 1. almond. 2. an almond-shaped structure. 3. corpus amygdaloideum. a·myg·da·la n. pl. , hippocampus, and the rhinal rhi·nal adj. Nasal. rhinal pertaining to the nose. and periamygdaloid areas of the anterior and medial cortex. Another six waiting-list patients with social phobia in a control group showed no significant blood flow changes in those areas. |
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