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Review
. 2014 Mar;16(1):75-81.
doi: 10.31887/DCNS.2014.16.1/mbeauregard.

Functional neuroimaging studies of the effects of psychotherapy

Mario Beauregard  1
Affiliations
Review

Functional neuroimaging studies of the effects of psychotherapy

Mario Beauregard. Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2014 Mar.

Abstract
in English, Spanish, French

It has been long established that psychological interventions can markedly alter patients' thinking patterns, beliefs, attitudes, emotional states, and behaviors. Little was known about the neural mechanisms mediating such alterations before the advent of functional neuroimaging techniques. Since the turn of the new millenium, several functional neuroimaging studies have been conducted to tackle this important issue. Some of these studies have explored the neural impact of various forms of psychotherapy in individuals with major depressive disorder. Other neuroimaging studies have investigated the effects of psychological interventions for anxiety disorders. I review these studies in the present article, and discuss the putative neural mechanisms of change in psychotherapy. The findings of these studies suggest that mental and behavioral changes occurring during psychotherapeutic interventions can lead to a normalization of functional brain activity at a global level.

Desde hace tiempo se ha establecido que las intervenciones psicológicas pueden alterar marcadamente los patrones del pensamiento, las creencias, las actitudes, los estados emocionales y las conductas de los pacientes. Previo a la incorporación de las técnicas de neuroimágenes funcionales se conocía poco sobre los mecanismos neurales que mediaban estas alteraciones. Desde el comienzo del nuevo milenio se han realizado algunos estudios de neuroimágenes funcionales para abordar este importante tema. Algunos de ellos han explorado el impacto neural de diferentes formas de psicoterapia en sujetos con trastorno depresivo mayor. Otros estudios han investigado los efectos de las íntervenciones psicológicas en los trastornos ansiosos. En este artículo se revisan estos estudios y se discuten los mecanismos neurales de cambio reconocidos en la psicoterapia. Los hallazgos de estos estudios sugieren que los cambios mentales y conductuales que se producen durante las intervenciones psicoterapéuticas pueden llevar a una normalización de la actividad cerebral funcional a nivel global.

Les interventions psychologiques sont connues depuis longtemps pour leur capacité à nettement modifier les schémas de pensée, les croyances, les attitudes, les états émotionnels et les comportements des patients. Avant l'ère des techniques de neuro-imagerie fonctionnelle, les mécanismes neuronaux liés à ces troubles étaient peu connus. Depuis ce nouveau millénaire, plusieurs études de neuro-imagerie fonctionnelle ont été conduites pour aborder cette importante question. Certaines d'entre elles ont examiné l'impact neuronal de différentes formes de psychothérapie chez des patients ayant un épisode dépressif caractérisé. D'autres ont analysé les effets des actions psychologiques sur les troubles anxieux. Dans cet article, j'examine ces études et j'analyse les mécanismes neuronaux présumés du changement en psychothérapie. Leurs résultats suggèrent que les modifications mentales et comportementales intervenant pendant les psychothérapies peuvent conduire à une normalisation de l'activité cérébrale fonctionnelle à un niveau global.

Keywords: anxiety disorder; brain; major depressive disorder; neuroimaging; psychotherapy.

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