The conundrum of antidepressant-induced anhedonia: a blended patient-psychologist perspective.

Adams, Nicholas Norman

Abstract

This article constitutes a Patient Perspective, grounded in lived experience. Its primary aim is to enhance awareness of antidepressant-induced anhedonia by providing experience-based insights, relevant to clinicians, researchers, and caregivers. My own experiences with treatment-resistant depression-anxiety have been significant and long-lasting. In my 22-year-plus journey of illness experience - and having taken over twenty-three antidepressant medications - emotional-blunting, anhedonia, and mania have all, at times, been side-effect-related factors. This work explores the conundrum of antidepressant-induced anhedonia, developing an in-depth patient perspective useful for mental health practitioners, psychiatrists, psychologists and for wider formal professional and informal non-professional caring actors. I write this via a reflexive lens as a long-term mental health patient, while also recognising my dual-positionality as a Chartered Psychologist and an academic with a PhD working in the field of mental health. Thus, my dual-perspective provides a unique lens useful for translating the patient experience to a wider caregiving audience: fostering understanding and deepened awareness of the anhedonia experience. Implications for patient-care are discussed.

Citation

ADAMS, N.N. 2025. The conundrum of antidepressant-induced anhedonia: a blended patient-psychologist perspective. Journal of patient experience [online], 12. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1177/23743735251346666

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 16, 2025
• Online Publication Date: May 27, 2025
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2025
• Deposit Date: May 23, 2025
• Publicly Available Date: May 23, 2025
• Journal: Journal of patient experience
• Electronic ISSN: 2374-3743
• Publisher: SAGE Publications
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 12
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/23743735251346666
• Keywords: Anhedonia; Monoamine-oxidase-inhibitors (MAOIs); Antidepressants; Treatment-resistant depression; Depression; Major depressive disorder (MDD)
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2842952