Trial reportNeuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology2020
Nucleus accumbens volume as a predictor of anxiety symptom improvement following CBT and SSRI treatment in two independent samples.
Trial report in Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- The medial prefrontal cortex as a proposed regulatory structure in the relationship between anxiety and perceived social support: a review.BMC psychology · 2025Pooled it
- Mild concussion impairs extinction of avoidance and alters respective brain circuits in male rats.Experimental neurology · 2026Article
- Neurostructural Substrates of Hierarchical Dimensions of Internalizing Symptoms in Youth.Human brain mapping · 2026Article
- Cannabidiol Reduces D1 and D2 Medium Spiny Neuron Excitability in the Nucleus Accumbens Core.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Subcortical shape alterations in children with Noonan syndrome spectrum: insights into genotype-phenotype associations.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2025Article
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy App, Resting State Functional Connectivity, and Anxiety.JAMA network open · 2025Article
- The Emerging Role of Brain Mitochondria in Fear and Anxiety.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Neural Markers of Treatment Response in Pediatric Anxiety and PTSD.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Structural Brain Correlates of Anxiety During Development.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Review
- Prefrontal modulation of anxiety through a lens of noradrenergic signaling.Frontiers in systems neuroscience · 2023Review
- Neurobiological Features of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Their Role in Understanding Adaptive Behavior and Stress Resilience.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Review
- Network Diffusion Embedding Reveals Transdiagnostic Subnetwork Disruption and Potential Treatment Targets in Internalizing Psychopathologies.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2022Article
- Dialectical Thinking Is Linked With Smaller Left Nucleus Accumbens and Right Amygdala.Frontiers in psychology · 2022Article
- Increased self-reported reward responsiveness predicts better response to cognitive behavioral therapy for youth with anxiety.Journal of anxiety disorders · 2021Article
- Amygdala size varies with stress perception.Neurobiology of stress · 2021Article
- Graph theoretical measures of the uncinate fasciculus subnetwork as predictors and correlates of treatment response in a transdiagnostic psychiatric cohort.Psychiatry research. Neuroimaging · 2020Article
- Involvement of nucleus accumbens D2-medium spiny neurons projecting to the ventral pallidum in anxiety-like behaviour.Journal of psychiatry & neuroscience : JPNArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Structural variations of neural regions implicated in fear responses have been well documented in the pathophysiology of anxiety and may play an important role in treatment response. We examined whether gray matter volume of three neural regions supporting fear and avoidance responses [bilateral amygdala, nucleus accumbens (NAcc), and ventromedial prefrontal cortex (PFC)] predicted cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) treatment outcome in two independent samples of patients with anxiety disorders. Study 1 consisted of 81 adults with anxiety disorders and Study 2 included 55 children and adolescents with anxiety disorders. In both studies, patients completed baseline structural MRI scans and received either CBT or SSRI treatment. Clinician-rated interviews of anxiety symptoms were assessed at baseline and posttreatment. Among the adult sample, greater pre-treatment bilateral NAcc volume was associated with a greater reduction in clinician-rated anxiety symptoms pre-to-post CBT and SSRI treatment. Greater left NAcc volume also predicted greater decreases in clinician-rated anxiety symptoms pre-to-post CBT and SSRI treatment among youth with current anxiety. Across studies, results were similar across treatments, and findings were maintained when adjusting for patient's age, sex, and total intracranial brain volume. We found no evidence for baseline amygdala or ventromedial PFC volume serving as treatment predictors across the two samples. Together, these findings provide promising support for the role of NAcc volume as an objective marker of anxiety treatment improvement that spans across development. Future studies should clarify the specific mechanisms through which NAcc volume exerts its therapeutic effects.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.