We Might Finally Understand How We Inherit Anxiety From Our Parents

Researchers have discovered an inherited brain pathway that increases the risk of anxiety in monkeys, and if the research translates to humans, it could have huge implications for treating overwhelming anxiety. 

The focus was specifically on extreme anxiety temperaments (AT) because these are a significant risk factor for anxiety disorders and depression in human children. 

"The way we measure this alteration in monkeys is very similar to the method that we use to measure this circuit in our studies of anxiety in human children, so this research is highly translational,'' said senior author and biological psychiatrist, Ned Kalin. 

Extreme early-life anxiety is one of the biggest risk factors for anxiety disorders and depression, yet most current treatments address symptoms rather than the underlying problem. 

"We are continuing to discover the brain circuits that underlie human anxiety, especially the alterations in circuit function that underlie the early childhood risk to develop anxiety and depressive disorders,'' said Kalin. Source

Journal Reference:

Andrew S. Fox, Jonathan A. Oler, Rasmus M. Birn, Alexander J. Shackman, Andrew L. Alexander and Ned H. KalinJournal of Neuroscience 30 July 2018, 0102-18; DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0102-18.2018