Neurocircuitry of generalized anxiety disorder in adolescents: a pilot functional neuroimaging and functional connectivity study.

Background: Dysfunction of neural systems responsible for the processing of emotional stimuli is hypothesized to be involved in the pathophysiology of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) in adolescents. We used standard fMRI and functional connectivity analyses to examine the functional neurocircuitry of GAD in adolescents.

Methods: Ten adolescents with GAD and 10 healthy comparison subjects underwent fMRI while performing a continuous performance task with emotional and neutral distractors.