{"id":12730,"date":"2026-02-09T09:55:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T05:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/?p=12730"},"modified":"2026-02-09T09:55:56","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T05:55:56","slug":"scientists-have-discovered-structural-differences-in-the-brains-of-people-with-panic-disorder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/scientists-have-discovered-structural-differences-in-the-brains-of-people-with-panic-disorder\/","title":{"rendered":"Scientists have discovered structural differences in the brains of people with panic disorder"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-path-to-node=\"1\"><span class=\"\">Scientists from the Amsterdam University Medical Center and Leiden University have conducted a large-scale study that identified the neuroanatomical foundations of panic disorder (PD).<\/span><span class=\"\"> The paper,<\/span><span class=\"\"> published in the journal <\/span><i class=\"\" data-path-to-node=\"1\" data-index-in-node=\"222\">Molecular Psychiatry<\/i><span class=\"\">,<\/span><span class=\"\"> is based on brain scan data from nearly 5,<\/span><span class=\"\">000 individuals.<\/span><span class=\"\"> This work stands as the most reliable and extensive study ever conducted in this field.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"2\"><span class=\"\">The researchers established that individuals with panic disorder exhibit a slightly thinner cerebral cortex and reduced volume in several regions,<\/span><span class=\"\"> including the frontal,<\/span><span class=\"\"> temporal,<\/span><span class=\"\"> and parietal lobes.<\/span><span class=\"\"> The study showed that structural changes are particularly evident in parts of the brain responsible for the perception,<\/span><span class=\"\"> processing,<\/span><span class=\"\"> and regulation of emotionally significant information.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"3\"><span class=\"\">In addition to the cortex,<\/span><span class=\"\"> alterations were also observed in subcortical structures.<\/span><span class=\"\"> Interestingly,<\/span><span class=\"\"> some changes are age-dependent:<\/span><span class=\"\"> for example,<\/span><span class=\"\"> an early onset of panic disorder (before age 21) is associated with an enlargement of the lateral ventricles.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"4\"><span class=\"\">The scientists utilized standardized ENIGMA protocols.<\/span><span class=\"\"> This method allows for the integrated analysis of data collected from various locations worldwide.<\/span><span class=\"\"> The research confirms that panic disorder is not merely a psychological condition; it is also characterized by specific neuroanatomical features linked to impairments in emotion processing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\"><span class=\"\">Scientists plan to observe how these neuroanatomical markers change during treatment and psychotherapy.<\/span><span class=\"\"> Such large-scale studies will help researchers understand the effectiveness of various therapies,<\/span><span class=\"\"> not only in terms of symptom relief but also regarding structural improvements in the brain.<\/span><\/p>\n<p data-path-to-node=\"5\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41380-025-03376-4\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Molecular Psychiatry<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists from the Amsterdam University Medical Center and Leiden University have conducted a large-scale study that identified the neuroanatomical foundations of panic disorder (PD). The paper, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, is based on brain scan data from nearly 5,000 individuals. This work stands as the most reliable and extensive study ever conducted in [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12729,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1631,1594,1645,1587,1657],"tags":[4313],"class_list":["post-12730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-neurology","category-news","category-psychiatry","category-research","category-science","tag-panic-disorder"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12730"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12733,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12730\/revisions\/12733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medscriptum.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}