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.”

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Actually

[Ol Olsoc]

They ought to do some brain scans of people who can't function away from people while they are at it. As a person who doesn't need a lot of social interaction, but is completely comfortablle in social situations, I'm closer to understanding the recluse than the social butterfly.