Trial reportBehaviour research and therapy2020
Distress and anhedonia as predictors of depression treatment outcome: A secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial.
Trial report in Behaviour research and therapy, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 44 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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.
Prevention of Recurrence in Depression With Drugs and CT
Protocol of a Two-Arm Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) of Digital Positive Affect Intervention Study
Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 89 citations in OpenAlex.
- Examining the relationship between pre-treatment anhedonia and treatment outcomes in individuals with anxiety or depression: A systematic review.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Pooled it
- Psychotherapy or medication for depression? Using individual symptom meta-analyses to derive a Symptom-Oriented Therapy (SOrT) metric for a personalised psychiatry.BMC medicine · 2020Pooled it
- Exercise priming to enhance therapeutic bond and behavioral activation in CBT for MDD: a randomized controlled target-engagement trial with remission signal.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Trial
- Positive Affect Treatment for Depression, Anxiety, and Low Positive Affect: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA network open · 2026Trial
- Examining a Fully Automated Mobile-Based Behavioral Activation Intervention in Depression: Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR mental health · 2024Trial
- Long-term depressive symptom trajectories and related baseline characteristics in primary care patients: Analysis of the PsicAP clinical trial.European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2024Trial
- A phase 3, multicenter, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial to verify the efficacy and safety of ansofaxine (LY03005) for major depressive disorder.Translational psychiatry · 2023Trial
- A novel model to predict mental distress among medical graduate students in China.BMC psychiatry · 2021Trial
- Adding cognitive therapy to antidepressant medications decreases suicidal ideation.Journal of affective disorders · 2021Trial
- Double trouble: Do symptom severity and duration interact to predicting treatment outcomes in adolescent depression?Behaviour research and therapy · 2020Trial
- Peripheral Inflammation and Sleep Loss Induce Coordinated Motivational Changes: An Experimental Two-Hit Stress Model.Journal of sleep research · 2026Article
- Development of a baseline battery to optimize depression treatment assignment in primary care: Balancing breadth and brevity.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Identifying distinct trajectories of change in anhedonia during psychological treatment for depression.Psychological medicine · 2026Article
- Anticipatory pleasure as a key hedonic component in classifying major depressive disorder: multidimensional behavioral evidence from majority vote algorithm.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Anhedonia and its sub-component processes predict clinically significant symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and loneliness in young people.The British journal of clinical psychology · 2026Article
- Uncovering the heterogeneity in young adult anxiety: subtypes predict outcomes of a CBT mobile app.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Anhedonia nonresponse to short-term ketamine administration for treatment-resistant bipolar depression.Therapeutic advances in psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Network and Factor Structure of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in Telemental Healthcare Patients From Bangladesh: Evidence for Precision Mental Healthcare.Depression and anxiety · 2026Observational
- The association of different dimensions of anhedonia in the relationship between depressive symptoms and self-harm in adolescents with mood disorders.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Which aspects of anhedonia predict response to pharmacotherapy in major depressive disorder?Psychological medicine · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Two core features of depression include depressed mood (heightened distress) and anhedonia (reduced pleasure). Despite their centrality to depression, studies have not examined their contribution to treatment outcomes in a randomized clinical trial providing mainstream treatments like antidepressant medications (ADM) and cognitive therapy (CT). We used baseline distress and anhedonia derived from a factor analysis of the Mood and Anxiety Symptom Questionnaire to predict remission and recovery in 433 individuals with recurrent/chronic major depressive disorder. Patients were provided with only ADM or both ADM and CT. Overall, higher baseline distress and anhedonia predicted longer times to remission within one year and recovery within three years. When controlling for treatment condition, distress improved prediction of outcomes over and above anhedonia, while anhedonia did not improve prediction of outcomes over and above distress. Interactions with treatment condition demonstrated that individuals with higher distress and anhedonia benefited from receiving CT in addition to ADM, whereas there was no added benefit of CT for individuals with lower distress and anhedonia. Assessing distress and anhedonia prior to treatment may help select patients who will benefit most from CT in addition to ADM. For the treatments and outcome measures tested, utilizing distress to guide treatment planning may yield the greatest benefit.
trial registrationclinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00057577.
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What OpenQuestion holds
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 OpenQuestion graph.