Trial reportPsychological medicine2023
Reduced anhedonia following internet-based cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression is mediated by enhanced reward circuit activation.
Trial report in Psychological medicine, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed.
- Positive Affect Treatment for Depression, Anxiety, and Low Positive Affect: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2026Trial
- Dynamic Changes in ALFF and DC in Subthreshold Depression Before and After ICBT Intervention.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2025Trial
- Neural responsiveness to reward and suicidal ideation in social anxiety and major depression before and after psychotherapy.Biological psychology · 2023Trial
- The relationship between negative life events and anhedonia among patients with major depressive disorder: chain mediation of insomnia and dysfunctional attitudes.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Changes in Neural Activities and Neuroplasticity Related to Nonpharmacological Interventions for Major Depressive Disorder: A Systematic Literature Review.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Review
- Predicting antidepressant response via local-global graph neural network and neuroimaging biomarkers.NPJ digital medicine · 2025Article
- Anhedonia: Current and future treatments.PCN reports : psychiatry and clinical neurosciences · 2025Review
- Therapeutic Metaphors Enhance Memory Systems in Mental Health Contexts.Brain and behavior · 2025Article
- Short-term alterations of brain network properties in subthreshold depression: the impact of Internet-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.Frontiers in neurology · 2025Article
- Differential benefits of internet-based behavioral activation (iBA) for adolescents with high vs. low reward probability: a secondary analysis.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Trying to name what doesn't change: Neural nonresponse to Cognitive Therapy for depression.Psychological medicine · 2024Article
- Reward Processing During Monetary Incentive Delay Task After Leptin Substitution in Lipodystrophy-an fMRI Case Series.Journal of the Endocrine Society · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundMajor depressive disorder (MDD) is a highly prevalent psychiatric condition, yet many patients do not receive adequate treatment. Novel and highly scalable interventions such as internet-based cognitive-behavioral-therapy (iCBT) may help to address this treatment gap. Anhedonia, a hallmark symptom of MDD that refers to diminished interest and ability to experience pleasure, has been associated with reduced reactivity in a neural reward circuit that includes medial prefrontal and striatal brain regions. Whether iCBT can reduce anhedonia severity in MDD patients, and whether these therapeutic effects are accompanied by enhanced reward circuit reactivity has yet to be examined.
methodsFifty-two MDD patients were randomly assigned to either 10-week iCBT (
resultsBoth iCBT and MAC groups exhibited a reduction in anhedonia severity post-treatment. Nevertheless, only the iCBT group exhibited enhanced nucleus accumbens (Nacc) and subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) activation and functional connectivity from pre- to post-treatment in response to reward feedback. Enhanced Nacc and sgACC activations were associated with reduced anhedonia severity following iCBT treatment, with enhanced Nacc activation also mediating the reduction in anhedonia severity post-treatment.
conclusionsThese findings suggest that increased reward circuit reactivity may contribute to a reduction in anhedonia severity following iCBT treatment for depression.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.