Anxiety, anhedonia, and related food consumption in Israelis populations:An online cross-sectional study two years since the outbreak of COVID-19

Fleischer, E.; Landaeta-Díaz, L.; González-Medina, Gabriela; Horovitz, Omer

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17211

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…The COVID-19 pandemic creatednegative health consequences such as consuming high-fat and sugar foods, increasing body weight [ 109 ], anxiety and depression [ 110 ], anhedonia [ 110 , 111 ], or a combination thereof [ 83 ]. As a core characteristic of eating disorders and all forms of addiction [ 22 ], bingeing is associated with changes in the activity of the brain’s reward system in the process of pathological adaptation of the central nervous system through deregulation of the reward mechanisms generating positive reinforcement.…”

Section: Covid-19 Pandemic and Mental Healthmentioning

confidence: 99%

From Reward to Anhedonia-Dopamine Function in the Global Mental Health Context

Dresp-Langley

2023

Biomedicines

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When “hijacked” by compulsive behaviors that affect the reward and stress centers of the brain, functional changes in the dopamine circuitry occur as the consequence of pathological brain adaptation. As a brain correlate of mental health, dopamine has a central functional role in behavioral regulation from healthy reward-seeking to pathological adaptation to stress in response to adversity. This narrative review offers a spotlight view of the transition from healthy reward function, under the control of dopamine, to the progressive deregulation of this function in interactions with other brain centers and circuits, producing what may be called an anti-reward brain state. How such deregulation is linked to specific health-relevant behaviors is then explained and linked to pandemic-related adversities and the stresses they engendered. The long lockdown periods where people in social isolation had to rely on drink, food, and digital rewards via the internet may be seen as the major triggers of changes in motivation and reward-seeking behavior worldwide. The pathological adaptation of dopamine-mediated reward circuitry in the brain is discussed. It is argued that, when pushed by fate and circumstance into a physiological brain state of anti-reward, human behavior changes and mental health is affected, depending on individual vulnerabilities. A unified conceptual account that places dopamine function at the centre of the current global mental health context is proposed.

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