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Award for novel treatment into social phobia

19 September 2007

Associate Professor Pradeep Nathan, School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine will soon begin recruiting study participants for a trial to try to find a cure for social anxiety disorder.

Associate Professor Pradeep Nathan, from the School of Psychology, Psychiatry and Psychological Medicine, has received the 2007 NARSAD Independent Investigator Award.

Associate Professor Nathan will receive US$100,000 over two years on a project titled "Effects of Intranasal Oxytocin on Amygdala Response to Fear in Social Anxiety Disorder".

Generalised Social Anxiety Disorder (GSAD), also known as social phobia, is the most common anxiety disorder affecting 8-13 per cent of the population and is the third most common psychiatric disorder.

According to Professor Nathan, GSAD is characterized by excessive, irrational and persistent fear of being scrutinized or negatively evaluated by others.

"We have shown that GSAD is associated with abnormality in a brain area called the amygdala, in response to fear," he said.

"We have also shown that the hormone oxytocin can reduce brain responses to stress and fear and thus may play an important role in reducing fear in disorders of heightened response to fear, such as GSAD".

Oxytocin is a hormone produced naturally in the hypothalamus area of the brain. Aside from its well known functions in milk letdown and labour, oxytocin has recently been linked with emotional and social behaviours.

The proposed research will use MRI imaging to examine for the first time if intranasal oxytocin can reduce the abnormal brain response to threatening facial stimuli in patients with GSAD, and thus may provide important evidence for the role of oxytocin as a treatment approach.

"We hope the findings will provide important evidence for the role of oxytocin as a potential powerful treatment approach toward socially relevant fear," he said.

The NARSAD award and grant is one of the highest distinctions in the field of brain disorder research.

Associate Professor Nathan and PhD student Izelle Labuschagne will soon begin recruiting study participants. Pradeep and Izelle can be contacted at Pradeep.Nathan@med.monash.edu.au or Izelle.Labuschagne@med.monash.edu.au or +61 3 990 53952. For more information about NARSAD, visit the website.