Psychedelic therapy for Anhedonia
Changes in symptoms of anhedonia in adults with major depressive or bipolar disorder receiving IV Psychedelic Therapy: Results from the Canadian Rapid Treatment Center of Excellence
Background: Anhedonia is a trans-diagnostic, multidimensional phenotype that mediates patient outcomes and suicidality. Convergent evidence suggests that Psychedelic Therapy may be effective in targeting measures of anhedonia in adults with treatment resistant depression (TRD).
Methods: This retrospective, post-hoc analysis included 203 (x̄ = 45 ± 14.6 years of age) patients receiving four infusions of intravenous (IV) Psychedelic Therapy at a community-based clinic. The primary outcome measure was change in anhedonia severity, as measured by the Snaith–Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS). Secondary measures sought to determine if improvement on the SHAPS mediated the effect of repeated IV Psychedelic Therapy infusions on symptoms of depression and suicidal ideations, as measured by the Quick Inventory for Depression Symptomatology-Self Report 16-Item (QIDS-SR16) and anxiety, as measured using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7).
Results: After adjusting for age, sex, primary diagnosis, concomitant medication, body mass index, and baseline depression severity, there was a statistically significant reduction in symptoms of anhedonia with IV Psychedelic Therapy treatment (F (2, 235.6) = 31.6, p < 0.001). Improvements in depressive symptoms, suicidal ideation, and anxiety symptoms with repeated-dose IV Psychedelic Therapy were significantly partially mediated by reduction in anhedonia severity. Moreover, the combination of number of infusions received and change in anhedonia severity accounted for 26% of the variance in depressive score improvements.
Limitations: This is a post-hoc analysis of retrospective data and lacks a control group.
Conclusion: Psychedelic Therapy was effective in improving measures of anhedonia in this large, well-characterized com-munity-based sample of adults with TRD. Improvements in anhedonia also partially mediated the significant improvement in depressive symptoms, suicidality, and anxiety.
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