Trial reportBiological psychiatry2024
Amplification of Positivity Treatment for Anxiety and Depression: A Randomized Experimental Therapeutics Trial Targeting Social Reward Sensitivity to Enhance Social Connectedness.
Trial report in Biological psychiatry, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 4 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 42 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
- Meta-analysis of neural correlates of working memory, reward, and emotion processing in major depressive disorder using AES-SDM.BMC psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Meta-analysis of neural correlates of working memory, reward, and emotion processing in major depressive disorder using ALE.Psychological medicine · 2026Pooled it
- Fears Worth Testing Out: A Systematic Review of the Neural Mechanisms of Treatment Outcome for Anxiety-Related Disorders.Current topics in behavioral neurosciences · 2025Pooled it
- Acute placebo responsiveness predicts longitudinal expectation effects in antidepressant treatment.Translational psychiatry · 2026Trial
- Consummatory deficits in close social reward predict inflammation-induced depressed mood.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Trial
- Brain Activation Associated With Response to Psychotherapies for Late-Life Depression: A Task-Based fMRI Study.The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry · 2025Trial
- A parallel-arm, randomized trial of Behavioral Activation Therapy for anhedonia versus mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for adults with anhedonia.Behaviour research and therapy · 2024Trial
- Amplification of positivity for depression and anxiety: Neural prediction of treatment response.Behaviour research and therapy · 2024Trial
- Application of an egocentric social network approach to examine changes in social connections following treatment for anxiety and depression: A novel measurement tool for clinical trials research?Social science & medicine (1982) · 2024Trial
- The dynamics of loneliness: Longitudinal associations of anhedonia and dampening in a clinical sample of depressed individuals.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Article
- Dopaminergic modulation of social reward anticipation in depression: neural effects of amisulpride versus placebo.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Targeting mechanisms of change as a path to precision psychotherapy for community settings.Psychotherapy research : journal of the Society for Psychotherapy Research · 2026Article
- Network analyses of discrete emotions and social connectedness indicators in anxiety and depressive disorders.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 2026Article
- Personalized machine learning guided intervention for optimizing lifestyle behaviors in depression: a pilot study.NPP - digital psychiatry and neuroscience · 2026Article
- Considering symptom burden and social relationships during sexual health management in ovarian suppression-treated women with breast cancer.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Differential associations of childhood abuse and neglect with neural responses to social reward and punishment in adults with anxiety or depression.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Anxiety and depression in emerging adults: The STAND program as a model of scalable screening and intervention.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2026Review
- Deficit in attentional capture by social-value related conditioned stimuli - a new perspective to understand the social-reward learning disorders among individuals with depressive symptoms.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- The power of positivity: Exploring affective and social processes of change throughout a positive valence treatment for anxiety or depression.Journal of mood and anxiety disorders · 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
9 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSocial disconnection is common and causes significant impairment in anxiety and depressive disorders, and it does not respond sufficiently to available treatments. The positive valence system supports social bond formation and maintenance but is often hyporesponsive in people with anxiety or depression. We conducted an experimental therapeutics trial to test the hypothesis that targeting positive valence processes through cognitive and behavioral strategies would enhance responsivity to social rewards, a core mechanism underlying social connectedness.
methodsSixty-eight adults who endorsed clinically elevated anxiety and/or depression with social impairment were randomized 1:1:1 to 5 (n = 23) or 10 (n = 22) sessions of amplification of positivity (AMP) treatment or waitlist (n = 23). Pre- to posttreatment change in striatal activity (primary outcome) during social reward anticipation was measured using functional magnetic resonance imaging, and reactivity to a social affiliation task (secondary) and self-reported social connectedness (exploratory) were examined. Primary analyses compared AMP (doses combined) versus waitlist. A second aim was to compare the effects of different doses.
resultsAMP engaged the hypothesized treatment target, leading to greater striatal activation during anticipation of social rewards versus waitlist (d = 1.01 [95% CI = 0.42-1.61]; largest striatal volume). AMP yielded larger improvements in positive affect and approach behavior during the affiliation task (but not other outcomes) and social connectedness. Larger striatal and social connectedness increases were observed for 5-session versus 10-session AMP (d range = 0.08-1.03).
conclusionsTeaching people with anxiety or depression strategies to increase positive thoughts, behaviors, and emotions enhances activity in brain regions that govern social reward processing and promotes social connectedness. Social reward sensitivity may be a transdiagnostic target for remediating social disconnection.
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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 OpenQuestion graph.