AUTHOR=Kwaśny Aleksander , Cubała Wiesław Jerzy , Włodarczyk Adam 

TITLE=Anhedonia and depression severity measures during ketamine administration in treatment-resistant depression

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1334293

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1334293

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Background</title><p>Anhedonia is a core symptom of depression characterized by a diminished ability to experience pleasure. Currently available treatments for depression often fall short in adequately addressing anhedonia that often presents as a chronic and debilitating symptom. Ketamine is known to possess antianhedonic properties.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>This <italic>post-hoc</italic> analysis of a naturalistic observational study of treatment-resistant depression inpatients (n=28) analyzed antianhedonic response patterns measured by Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale and changes in Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology in responders (n=6) and non-responders (n=22) stratified per Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale during short-term ketamine treatment.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>Results show that responders significantly improve in anhedonia over time (p=0.0084) and at the 7th infusion and follow-up (both p&lt;0.05). Non-responders reported significant reduction in anhedonia over time (p=0.0011) and at the 5th, 7th infusion and at the follow-up (all p’s&lt;0.05). Non-responders were also observed to improve significantly in self-reported depression at the 7th infusion (p=0.0219) but not at the follow-up.</p></sec><sec><title>Discussion</title><p>There is no complete overlap between change in depressive symptoms and anhedonia. Therefore, it might be assumed ketamine alleviates anhedonia as an individual symptom domain regardless of formal treatment outcome.</p></sec>