Slashdot Mirror
Brain Scan Predicts the Success of Social Anxiety Disorder Treatment
jan_jes writes: MIT researchers performed brain scans on 38 SAD patients and were able to predict with about 80% accuracy which patients would do well in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Use of the scans to predict treatment outcomes improved predictions fivefold over use of a clinician's assessment alone. The researchers used a form of brain imaging that scans patients in a state of rest. Resting-state images can be done quickly and reliably, so they have the potential to be used in a clinical setting. “Choice of therapy is like a wheel of chance,” says first author Susan Whitfield-Gabrieli, a research scientist in the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT. “We’re hoping to use brain imaging to help provide more reliable predictors of treatment response.”
... what's wrong with social anxiety?
Most people are assholes so it seems quite reasonable as a general attitude, doesn't it?
My problem with my social anxiety is that I can't choose who or when it gets applied to.
Even my close friends whom aren't assholes have had to put up with me "disappearing" for weeks or months on end during attacks, and while those friends are all pretty understanding of my problem it still has to be pretty hard on them as well as myself.
I've only so far found one medication that, sorta kind technically fixes the problem.
Mainly, while I don't feel anxiety while on it thus it technically works, I also don't feel anything else at all. No happiness, no sadness, no empathy, no looking forward to anything, etc.
While not under an attack I can see that given the choice between feeling only bad and feeling nothing, at least nothing is arguably better in that the bad is gone and nothing else changes.
But during an attack it's typically quite the battle convincing myself there is any point in living life without anything good to look forward to.
While CBT hasn't worked on me, I do hope this tech gets to the point to identify other treatments that would have a higher (or any) success rate.