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Event‐related potentials in panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder
Author(s) -
HANATANI TAKASHI,
SUMI NORIAKI,
TAGUCHI SATOKI,
FUJIMOTO OSAMU,
NANNO HISASHIGE,
TAKEDA MASATOSHI
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
psychiatry and clinical neurosciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1440-1819
pISSN - 1323-1316
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1819.2005.01336.x
Subject(s) - panic disorder , psychology , audiology , generalized anxiety disorder , anxiety , panic , electroencephalography , event related potential , psychiatry , medicine
To evaluate the neurophysiological differences between panic disorder (PD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), 52 patients with PD and 34 with GAD were investigated using event‐related potentials (ERP). The ERP were recorded using a tone discrimination task, and peak latencies for N1, P2, N2, and P3 at a Pz electrode site were measured. In addition to analyzing the peak latencies of the ERP, the interpeak latencies (IPL; N1–P2, P2–N2, and N2–P3) were also analyzed. The same analysis was performed in 28 age‐matched healthy volunteers (controls). When compared to those of the GAD and control groups, the mean latencies of P2, N2, and P3 were shorter in the PD patients. With regard to the IPL in the PD patients, the N1–P2 IPL was shorter than that in the other groups, and no individual with PD had a longer N1–P2 IPL than 1 SD above the mean of the controls. These findings suggest that certain attention‐related processes in the cerebrum that affect ERP data are accelerated in PD patients. These findings demonstrate that it may be useful to neurophysiologically distinguish PD from GAD by measuring ERP peak latencies and IPL.