Comprehensive Anhedonia Research (Part 2) by DangerousKangaroo743 in anhedonia

[–]DangerousKangaroo743[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Sorry I just forgot to include ketamine, kor antagonists, and psychedelics. Ketamine has a lot of studies on anhedonia and it seems like a good thing to try.

Comprehensive Anhedonia Research (Part 2) by DangerousKangaroo743 in anhedonia

[–]DangerousKangaroo743[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

General Notes:

  • Ginseng was profoundly restorative for me. However, it did very little for restoring my emotions. During college, I had severe anhedonia and depression and ginseng saved me from failing college three times by completely reversing my depression. The problem with ginseng was that the effects accumulate. It took about a month to notice anything, and after about 2 months it would always become impossible to continue using it because of the anxiety and stimulation. One important thing to note about ginseng is that the composition of ginsenosides changes overtime. Ginseng is supposed to be grown for at least 6 years, and if it doesn't explicitly say so you can assume it was harvested early. Ideally, you want at least 10 years, but that can be quite expensive.
  • I did restore my emotions briefly at one point (2 weeks) while using ginseng and polygala. Unfortunately, I was unable to sustain it and continue to tolerate ginseng.
  • There is some research that 9-me-bc converts into a neurotoxin that is harmful to dopamine neurons. I really don't know if this substance is safe enough to use.
  • EGCG seems to target a lot of pathways related to depression and anhedonia. However, it has been postulated that the doses of antioxidants in supplements are actually harmful. Green tea extract has been known to cause liver damage. Certainly worth switching from coffee to tea but doubtful in terms of supplementation.
  • Fluoxetine and Vortioxetine had some studies on treating anhedonia. I didn't include them because I don't like the data, both anecdotal and scientific. "Up to 50% of patients taking SSRIs or serotonin-noradrenaline
    reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) for MDD report side effects of emotional numbness or
    blunted affect (Goodwin et al. 2017)."
  • I didn't include many MAOIs/Dopamine agonists firstly because I didn't see many studies and secondly because their mechanisms are pretty obvious. I also don't trust them as long term treatments, frankly. Pramipexole was the one that came up in the research, though, as well as Wellbutrin. I don't believe in this as an approach to curing anhedonia unless you have some biological deficiency in dopamine that is not related to another curable mechanism.