Modulating Escape Using Focused Ultrasound

Summary

This is a study to find out if a cutting-edge technology called transcranial focused ultrasound (tFUS) can be used to treat how people with anxiety or related concerns cope with emotional situations. tFUS is a brain stimulation technology that causes temporary changes in the activity of deep brain areas without a need for any surgery or other permanent or invasive procedures. This study is recruiting participants who recently started treatment for anxiety or a related concern to come in for 3 visits at the Medical University of South Carolina. At the first visit, participants will do interviews and surveys asking about anxiety and related concerns, and they do tasks where they respond to emotional pictures while brain activity is measured using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). At the next two visits, participants again do a task where they see and react to emotional images, and this time the task is done once before and again once after receiving tFUS that either actively causes temporary changes (lasting for about an hour) in a targeted brain area or is not active (no changes elicited). At each tFUS visit, responses are measured with sensors worn on the hand, arms, face, and head (these visits do not involve MRI). Each visit in this study is expected to last between 2 - 3 hours. This study is not a treatment study, but it could help improve treatment in the future. Participants in this study are paid for their time.

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

* 18-65 y.o.
* Meets criteria for an anxiety disorder (Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Specific Phobia), posttraumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or current adjustment disorder with anxiety
* Is currently seeking mental health treatment
* Is able to read consent document and provide informed consent.
* English is a first or primary fluent language.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Current alcohol or substance use disorder of more than mild severity (as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM)-5 and determined using standardized self-report instruments)
* Lifetime diagnosis of psychotic disorder or bipolar mania
* Presence of neurological disorder that contraindicates brain stimulation or neurophysiological recording: Seizure disorder
* Lifetime history of traumatic brain injury with loss of consciousness
* Neurodegenerative disorder (e.g., Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease, Frontotemporal Dementia)
* Presence of other medical disorder that would make it too uncomfortable to sit or lie still for long recording periods
* Presence of standard contraindications for magnetic resonance imaging
* Metal in the body
* Currently pregnant
* Claustrophobia
* Significant sensitivity to noise
* Medical conditions or treatments that lower seizure threshold
* History of severe brain injury
* History of seizures/ epilepsy
* Currently taking anticholinergic mediation, neuroleptic medication, or sedative/ hypnotic medication

Note: selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs), cholinesterase inhibitors or N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonists are allowed if patient has been on a stable regimen of four weeks prior to enrollment

* Currently taking chronic opiate medications or substances
* Currently taking naltrexone

Conditions2

Locations1 site

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