CHAPTER 9: Neurocircuitry of Anxiety Disorders: Focus on Panic Disorder and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

This chapter will provide an overview of the epidemiology, clinical features and neurocircuitry of anxiety disorders with a focus on panic disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Anxiety disorders are among the most common and disabling psychiatric illnesses. Ongoing basic, clinical and translational research aimed at understanding the neurobiology underlying the disorders is shedding new light on mechanisms of disease and opening up potential new avenues for much needed therapeutic discovery. Neurocircuitry models of fear learning in animals will be described in order to provide a translational basis of human neuroimaging and therapeutic studies in anxiety disorders. Findings from human pharmacological challenge studies and other clinical studies in panic disorder and PTSD will also be reviewed. Finally, the chapter concludes with a discussion of potential novel therapeutic strategies for anxiety disorders based on the findings from preclinical and clinical studies presented.