People with anxiety disorders may share a measurable change in brain chemistry involving choline, an essential nutrient tied to memory, mood, cell structure, and nerve signaling.
Research from UC Davis Health found that people diagnosed with anxiety disorders had lower levels of choline in the brain than people without anxiety. The finding comes from a study published in Molecular Psychiatry, a Nature journal, and offers a rare look at the chemistry that may be connected to anxiety across several different diagnoses.
The researchers reviewed data from 25 previous studies that measured neurometabolites, the chemicals involved in brain metabolism. Altogether, the analysis included 370 people with anxiety disorders and 342 people without anxiety.
A Consistent Chemical Signal in the Brain
The standout finding was choline. People with anxiety disorders had about 8% lower levels of this nutrient in the brain compared with those in the control groups. The pattern was especially clear in the prefrontal cortex, a brain region that helps regulate thought, emotion, decision making, and behavior.
