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Enhanced neural response to anticipation, effort and consummation of reward and aversion during Bupropion treatment

Dean, Z., Horndasch, S., Giannopoulos, P. and McCabe, C. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8704-3473 (2016) Enhanced neural response to anticipation, effort and consummation of reward and aversion during Bupropion treatment. Psychological Medicine, 46 (11). pp. 2263-2274. ISSN 1469-8978

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To link to this item DOI: 10.1017/S003329171600088X

Abstract/Summary

Background We have previously shown that the selective serotonergic re-uptake inhibitor, citalopram, reduces the neural response to reward and aversion in healthy volunteers. We suggest that this inhibitory effect might underlie the emotional blunting reported by patients on these medications. Bupropion is a dopaminergic and noradrenergic re-uptake inhibitor and has been suggested to have more therapeutic effects on reward-related deficits. However, how bupropion affects the neural responses to reward and aversion is unclear. Methods 17 healthy volunteers (9 female, 8 male) received 7 days of bupropion (150 mg/day) and 7 days of placebo treatment, in a double-blind crossover design. Our functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging task consisted of 3 phases; an anticipatory phase (pleasant or unpleasant cue), an effort phase (button presses to achieve a pleasant taste or to avoid an unpleasant taste) and a consummatory phase (pleasant or unpleasant tastes). Volunteers also rated wanting, pleasantness and intensity of the tastes. Results Relative to placebo, bupropion increased activity during the anticipation phase in the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and caudate. During the effort phase, bupropion increased activity in the vmPFC, striatum, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex and primary motor cortex. Bupropion also increased medial orbitofrontal cortex, amygdala and ventral striatum activity during the consummatory phase. Conclusions Our results are the first to show that bupropion can increase neural responses during the anticipation, effort and consummation of rewarding and aversive stimuli. This supports the notion that bupropion might be beneficial for depressed patients with reward-related deficits and blunted affect.

Item Type:Article
Refereed:Yes
Divisions:Life Sciences > School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences > Department of Psychology
ID Code:62183
Publisher:Cambridge University Press

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