"The greater the improvement we saw in the patients, the smaller the size of their amygdalae. The study also suggests that the reduction in volume drives the reduction in brain activity", says doctoral student Kristoffer NT Månsson, who led the study together with Linköping colleague Gerhard Andersson and researchers from the Karolinska Institutet, Uppsala University, Umeå University and Stockholm University.
The study comprised 26 individuals treated over the internet for nine weeks, making it a relatively small study. However, it is unique in that it investigates multiple factors at the same time: post-treatment changes in both brain volume and brain activity.
"Although we didn't look at that many patients, this work provides some important knowledge - especially for all the sufferers. Several studies have reported that certain areas of the brain differ between patients with and without anxiety disorders. We've shown that the patients can improve in nine weeks - and that this leads to structural differences in their brains", says Kristoffer NT Månsson.