Biomarkers of Specific Brain Changes in Adolescents with Anxiety Disorder Based on MRI Multimodal Data

Anxiety disorders are among the most prevalent mental illnesses, particularly among adolescents. Those adolescents experience chronic, persistent, excessive, and uncontrollable worry, as well as irrational fears, across various aspects of daily life. Despite the high incidence, only about 25% of affected individuals receive treatment, and among those, only approximately half achieve recovery with existing therapies. This study investigates biomarkers of anxiety disorders among adolescents using multimodal MRI data. The findings reveal structural and functional biomarkers, including changes in cortical area, thickness, and volume and alterations in functional connectivity and structural covariance network indices based on graph theory. Including a broad range of participants from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study, with diagnoses made through the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores, the research applies the linear mix model to partial out the covariates. The results show that adolescents with anxiety disorder exhibit abnormality in cortical structure, functional connectivity, and structural covariance among brain regions. The discussion contextualizes these findings about the behavioural symptoms associated with adolescent anxiety disorders.