Anhedonia, attributed to deficit in reward processing, is a core feature in CFS, MD, chronic pain...Review 2022

[pattismith]

Anhedonia is the reduced ability to strive for and to experience pleasure,10,11 and has been attributed to deficits in reward processing.12 Importantly, it is a core feature of many neuropsychiatric disorders, including chronic fatigue syndrome,10 major depression,10,11 and chronic pain,9 and has been associated with poor long-term outcomes and treatment responses.

Fatigue, depression, and pain in multiple sclerosis: How neuroinflammation translates into dysfunctional reward processing and anhedonic symptoms - Henrik Heitmann, Till F M Andlauer, Thomas Korn, Mark Mühlau, Peter Henningsen, Bernhard Hemmer, Markus Ploner, 2022 (sagepub.com)

Related thread

Association between Chronic Pain and Alterations in the Mesolimbic Dopaminergic System | Phoenix Rising ME/CFS Forums

 

[Zahr82]

Neuro inflammation?

 

[Jackb23]

A few years back my anhedonia was horrible. Before I did 30 or so ketamine infusions over the course of 2.5 years I would get an effect from caffeine, wellbutrin and many other things. After ketamine it was like these things had no pathways to run on. I deleted all social media and became a recluse. I tried all kinds of things to reverse the damage done by ketamine and was eventually somewhat successful.

One thing that did help me was magnesium threonate. I can remember actually wanting to listen to music in the car again. Before, it was just silence. I feel like ketamine almost totally changed my personality. Another thing that helped the anhedonia was a type of neurofeedback I did over the summer. I really did feel like my old self other than this damn OCD. I should have never gone back to fix it.

 

[Rufous McKinney]

After weeks of ongoing PEM, I got caught up on sleep non refreshing, and had about a two day improvement...feeling OK- ish.

But expended some effort today on going to QUEST, only to find we did not make the appointment correctly.

Visited with my husband, about 40 minutes.

Crashing again. On comes the headache. Ears ringing.

So I should be striving for pleasure? Striving?


I am striving for a simple distraction from THIS.