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Symptoms

Anhedonia

Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, board-certified psychiatrist and the reviewer of this article.

Reviewed by Shariq Refai, MD, MBA·Updated March 15, 2026·About 3 minutes

Canonical definition at Shrinktionary. This entry adds the depression-specific angle.

About this term

Sources

  • American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR).
  • Treadway MT, Zald DH. Reconsidering anhedonia in depression: lessons from translational neuroscience. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2011.
  • Cao B, et al. Pharmacological interventions targeting anhedonia in patients with major depressive disorder: a systematic review. Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry. 2019.

Primary source: NIMH: Depression.

Frequently asked questions

What's anhedonia?
Anhedonia is a reduced ability to feel pleasure or to anticipate pleasure. It's one of the two core symptoms of major depressive disorder in the DSM-5-TR; either anhedonia or depressed mood, present for most of the day nearly every day for at least two weeks, can anchor the diagnosis.
What does anhedonia feel like?
Patients commonly describe flatness rather than sadness. Food without taste, music without pull, sex that feels mechanical, time with family that passes without the usual lift. The motivation to start an activity often disappears before the activity itself stops feeling good.
How common is anhedonia in depression?
Anhedonia is reported in roughly 70 percent of patients with major depressive disorder in clinical samples (Cao et al., 2019). It's also reported by an estimated 30 to 50 percent of people with schizophrenia and by a substantial share of people with chronic pain conditions.
What's the difference between anhedonia and depressed mood?
Depressed mood is a present feeling of sadness or low mood. Anhedonia is the absence of pleasure or interest. Both are core symptoms of major depressive disorder, and many patients have both. Anhedonia is often slower to improve with treatment than mood.
How is anhedonia treated?
Behavioral activation, a structured therapy that rebuilds connection to activities before the pleasure returns, is well-suited to anhedonia. Bupropion is sometimes chosen when anhedonia and low motivation dominate. Ketamine, esketamine, and other treatments studied in treatment-resistant depression have shown specific signals on anhedonia in research.

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Last reviewed March 15, 2026.

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  1. GLOSSARYAnhedoniaCurrent
  2. MAPThe Anhedonia Map
  3. SYMPTOMLoss of interest in depression
  4. TYPETypes of depression
  5. HUBDepression Hub on Shrinkopedia

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