2024 Volume 16 Issue 1 Pages 31-37
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is recommended as the first-line choice treatment for social anxiety disorder. However, few reports have examined the treatment mechanisms through the lens of resting-state functional connectivity. This paper presents the study by Kurita et al. (2023), which conducted individual cognitive therapy for social anxiety disorder and investigated the treatment mechanisms using resting-state functional connectivity. The results indicated that patients with social anxiety disorder exhibited a decrease in resting-state functional connectivity between the thalamus and the frontal pole after individual cognitive therapy. Furthermore, the resting-state functional connectivity between the thalamus and the frontal pole before treatment was suggested to potentially predict treatment response. The implications of these findings may enhance our understanding of the treatment mechanisms in individual cognitive therapy and serve as a biomarker for predicting treatment efficacy in social anxiety disorder patients undergoing CBT.
