Pediatric anxiety is common, treatment often doesn't work, and it confers a risk for adult psychopathology. Researchers have found that neural efficiency holds promise as a biomarker for pediatric anxiety. For the patients — fewer than 50% of those with pediatric anxiety — for whom cognitive‐behavioral therapies (CBT) and other treatments don't work, a biomarker would be helpful. If clinicians could use biomarkers for treatment response, they could better target treatments to patients.
Alison Knopf (Sun,) studied this question.