SynthesisJournal of affective disorders2026
Examining the relationship between pre-treatment anhedonia and treatment outcomes in individuals with anxiety or depression: A systematic review.
Synthesis in Journal of affective disorders, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Positive Affect Treatment for Depression, Anxiety, and Low Positive Affect: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2026Trial
- Research agenda to advance anhedonia assessment, understanding and treatment: an ECNP-GALENOS expert meeting report.BMJ mental health · 2026Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Anxiety and depressive disorders are the most common mental health conditions globally, contributing to substantial functional impairment across social and occupational domains. Despite the efficacy of first-line psychosocial (e.g., cognitive behavioral therapy) and biological (e.g., pharmacotherapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation) interventions, approximately half of patients fail to achieve clinically significant improvement. Identifying predictors of treatment outcomes is crucial for enhancing therapeutic efficacy and addressing limitations of current treatments. This systematic review aimed to synthesize the literature on the relationship between pre-treatment anhedonia and treatment response in individuals receiving psychotherapy, pharmacotherapy, or neuromodulation for anxiety or unipolar depressive disorders. Studies were included that assessed the clinical symptom of anhedonia using subjective measures and, secondarily, subjective, neural, or behavioral indicators of reward sensitivity. Of the 28 articles meeting criteria for this review, nine (32.1 %) indicated higher anhedonia/lower reward sensitivity was associated with worse treatment response. Four studies (14.3 %) found it was linked to better outcomes, eleven (39.3 %) reported mixed results, and four (14.3 %) found no significant relationships. Definitive conclusions cannot be drawn given inconsistent findings and because most studies involved secondary analyses that were often inadequately powered, and there was substantial heterogeneity in treatment types, study designs, measurement approaches, and outcomes. Prospective studies explicitly designed and powered to test anhedonia as a treatment predictor are needed. Future research should also clarify the direction, strength, and clinical relevance of the relationship between anhedonia - including its subcomponents and various units of analysis - and treatment outcomes in depression, anxiety, and related conditions.
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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.