Anhedonia during recovery of polysubstance use

Anhedonia play an essential role in the pathogenesis of drug addiction, and may have significant impact on the trajectories of recovery for afflicted patients. There exists limited amounts of research regarding polysubstance use disorder (PSUD), and even fewer of them explores how the prevalence of anhedonia affects these individuals during the recovery process. The aim of this study is to explore anhedonia over one years in the recovery process in individuals with PSUD. In addition, we explored the associations of predictors such as abstinence and active drug use, psychological distress, age and gender on the trajectory of anhedonia.

Data was provided by the Stavanger Study of Trajectories of Addiction (Stayer-study) at Stavanger University Hospital, which is a prospective longitudinal cohort study of 208 patients with addiction disorders, wherein 164 participants with PSUD. N=141 participants patients completed evaluation of anhedonia using the SHAPS self-report measure. Mental health, life satisfaction, executive functioning and drug use status was also gathered. No pharmaceutical grants were received in the development of this study

At baseline 29.1 % of participants reported anhedonia symptoms over the cut-off on SHAPS. At baseline, the presence of anhedonia was associated with lower age, psychological distress, life satisfaction, but not self-reported executive functioning. Anhedonia did not predict the drug use status three, six and twelve months drug use.

While anhedonia is common during the initial period of abstinence and is associated with mental distress and life quality. These results challenge the previously argued association between anhedonia and risk of relapse in patients with drug addiction.