SOLVING ANXIETY

Joseph LeDoux

20 million Americans (15%) suffer from anxiety disorders

Anxiety exacerbates all other mental and medical problems

Economic cost: > $50 billion per year (0.4 GDP)

Investing in the prevention and treatment of anxiety, especially in children, is the most efficient way to improve the health and well-being of our society

How Do We Prevent and Treat Anxiety?

We go to the source.

Fig 3

NEURAL CIRCUIT

AMYGDALA

THREATENINGSTIMULUS

FEAR RESPONSES

MUSCLETENSION

BLOOD PRESSURE

RESPIRATION

Auditory Cortex

AuditoryThalamus

CG LH PVN

ANSFREEZING HORMONES

LA

AMYGDALACE

cs

Somatosensory Cortex

SomatosensThalamus

us

CS Pathway US Pathway

BITC

SYNAPSE

MOLECULAR MECHANISMS

tone tone+shock tone

Fear ConditioningFIGHT FLIGHT RESPONSE

Present and Future Goals

Erasing traumatic memory

Finding neuronal markers of individual differences in fear

Discovering new ways to help children and adultsreduce anxiety so that anxiety disorders don’t develop

drugs that eliminate memoryin amygdala after remembering

Structural, physiological, andgenetic correlates of extremefear in the amygdala

Dampening amygdala activityby stress reduction techniques(controlled breathing)- shuts down fight-flight response

Drugs or gene therapy that targets the amygdala

The Emotional Brain Institutea research team focused on amygdala

fear and anxiety

NYU Washington Square NYU Langone Medical Center

NY State Nathan Kline Institute