Frontal hypoactivation during a word fluency task in patients with panic disorder: A multichannel near-infrared spectroscopy study

In recent years, the functional neuroanatomy of anxiety disorder has received remarkable attention. The present study investigated regional cerebral blood volume changes in the frontal area during a word fluency task performed by patients with panic disorder, as observed by multichannel near-infrared spectroscopy. After having given a written informed consent, 121 patients with panic disorder and 44 healthy volunteers participated in the study. The results showed a significantly lower increase in oxyhemoglobin during the word fluency task among patients than among healthy controls, and the oxyhemoglobin increase was also significantly less among those patients who had suffered panic attacks during the last month, as compared with those without panic attacks during that period of time. The results confirmed the presence of functional hypofrontality in patients with panic disorder, and multichannel NIRS is considered as a useful tool for the clarification of the pathology of panic disorder.