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ViewAttendees 2

Symposia

Treatment - CBT

Neuroscience based approaches to integrating CBT and not-exclusively-psychological treatments

3 - (SYM 85) Enhanced Outcomes for CBT Following Augmentation with Amygdala Rt-fmri Neurofeedback in Depression

Saturday, November 16, 2024
12:30 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Location: 309/310, Level 3, Downtown Marriott
Abstract Body

 

Background: CBT is a standard treatment for major depressive disorder (MDD) and one of the predictors of CBT’s efficacy is amygdala reactivity to positive information. However, participants suffering from MDD exhibit less amygdala activity to positive information. Therefore, we used an amygdala real-time fMRI neurofeedback (rt-fMRI-nf) intervention to train participants with MDD to enhance their amygdala activity while recalling positive autobiographical memories (AM) prior to CBT.

  

Methods: In a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial, 35 adults with MDD received two sessions of rt-fMRI-nf training to increase their amygdala (experimental group, N=16) or parietal (control group, N=19) responses during positive AMs recall before receiving 10 sessions of CBT. Participants were recruited from the community via advertisements and through the Pitt+Me research participant registry and the sample strongly oversampled white women. Depressive symptomatology was self-reported between rt-fMRI-nf sessions, the first three, 9th, and 10th sessions of CBT, and at 6 months and 1-year follow-up.

  

Results: Participants in the experimental group showed decreased symptomatology and higher remission rates at 6 months and 1-year follow-up, and, analysis of CBT content highlighted more focus on positive thinking and behaviors in comparison to the control group.
  

Conclusions: Combination of amygdala rt-fMRI-nf and CBT results in sustained clinical changes and long-lasting clinical improvement, potentially by increasing focus on positive cognitions.