Pediatric Anxiety and Tic Disorders Program
Research Study Projects
Clinical research is an ongoing and important aspect in the field of child and adolescent anxiety. Effective treatments are currently available for pediatric anxiety, but some youth fail to respond, respond only partially or do not have access to the existing evidence-based therapies. At the Pediatric Anxiety and Tic Disorders Program, we are actively pursuing research to advance a biologically based understanding of pediatric anxiety, spur the dissemination of existing treatments (e.g.g, cognitive behavioral therapy) and, ultimately, establish novel and alternative treatment strategies for anxious youth.
The developing brain in pediatric OCD
Dr. Kate Fitzgerald and colleagues have collected preliminary brain imaging data suggesting that one brain region in particular, the rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC), may respond excessively to performance errors in adults and children with OCD. OCD symptoms are usually associated with a nagging sense that a mistake has been made, and may be linked to hyperactivity of the rACC from the earliest stages of the illness. Patients with pediatric OCD and healthy youth are needed to help researchers to understand how development in the rACC and other brain regions may go awry in OCD. If you are interested in participating in Dr. Fitzgerald’s study of the developing brain in OCD, click here.
Brain study of youth at risk for OCD
EEG technology has been used to demonstrate an exaggerated electrical signal in response to performance errors in patients with pediatric OCD, but whether this abnormality may be inherited remains unknown. To understand whether this EEG finding may generalize to unaffected sibings who may be genetically at risk for OCD, Dr. Gregory Hanna and colleagues are conducting an electrophysiology (i.e., “EEG”) study of the siblings of pediatric patients with OCD. If interested in participating in Dr. Hanna’s EEG study of unaffected siblings of OCD patients, click here.
DNA analysis revealing genetic aspects of OCD
Specializing in genetics, Dr. Gregory L. Hanna has collaborated with scientists at the University of Chicago and the University of Toronto to illustrate the genetic factors that contribute to OCD. By studying genetic samples from patients and their families, Dr. Hanna and his colleagues have linked the glutamate transporter gene, SL1CA1, to OCD. This gene is believed to encode a protein that regulates the flow of the brain chemical, glutamate, in and out of brain cells. Variations in the gene might lead to alterations in that flow, perhaps putting a person at increased risk of developing OCD.
You can read more about this study here:
http://www.med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2006/ocd.htm (press release)
Predictors of Treatment Response in Social Phobia
Dr. K. Luan Phan and colleagues have discovered that adults and children with social phobia, social anxiety, and other anxiety disorders have an overactive amygdala, a special area of the brain that produces emotions and anxiety. They have shown that the more overactive your amygdala is, the more severe your anxiety is. Dr. Phan's research team is looking for children and adolescents with anxiety to participate in a research study to see if medication treatment will improve anxiety symptoms and correct amygdala function. All patients who qualify and enroll in the study will receive confidential care and free treatment with sertraline, a medication typically prescribed for anxiety, and regular treatment visits (appointments) throughout the 3 month study, and will be compensated for time spent at appointments.
