In a recent study published in Nature Medicine , researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data on brain circuit function to derive interpretable, personalized brain circuit dysfunction scores for patients with anxiety and depression. These scores were used to quantitatively define biotypes based on similarities in neurobiological dysfunction that could help improve response to pharmacotherapy and behavioral therapy. With the growing understanding of mental health disorders, it is becoming apparent that anxiety and depression disorders constitute a substantial portion of the public health burden worldwide.
Furthermore, the heterogeneity in the phenotype and etiology of anxiety and depression presents numerous challenges in effectively treating these disorders. One of the possible reasons why first-line treatments are not very effective for many of the patients diagnosed with either major depressive disorder or generalized anxiety disorder is the assigning single labels by the current diagnostic system to different syndromes that have overlapping neurobiological symptoms and processes. A system of quantitatively classifying neurobiological dysfunction using a theoretical framework would help improve clinical diagnoses of anxiety and depression-associated disorders and potentially make pharmacotherapy and behavior therapy more effective.
In the present study, the researchers presented a novel approach to determining and defining anxiety and depression biotyp.