Paradoxical effects of short-term antidepressant treatment in fMRI emotional processing models in volunteers with high neuroticism

• DOI: 10.1017/s0033291713000731
• Publication Date: 2013-04-19T11:00:15Z
• Authors: M. Di Simplicio; R. Norbury; A. Reinecke; C. J. Harmer
• Keywords: Citalopram; Serotonin reuptake inhibitor; Sertraline

Background Short-term antidepressant administration has been reported to decrease amygdala response threat in healthy volunteers and depressed patients. Neuroticism (N) is a risk factor for depression but also associated with slow or incomplete remission drug treatment. Our aim was investigate early selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) neural effects on implicit processing of fearful facial expressions high levels N. Method Highly neurotic subjects received 20 mg/day citalopram versus placebo 7 days double-blind, between-groups design. On the last day haemoperfusion functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data during gender discrimination task happy faces were acquired. A control group non-neurotic tested. Results High-N had reduced responses threatening across key circuits compared low-N volunteers. SSRI treatment found elevate resting perfusion right amygdala, increase bilateral amygdalae activation positive negative occipital, parietal, temporal prefrontal cortical areas. Conclusions These results suggest that can markers fear reactivity at end N dimension may be related increases anxiety agitation seen Such processes involved later therapeutic through decreased avoidance increased learning about social ‘threat’ cues.