Using Neuroscience to Augment Behavioral Interventions for Depression

Harv Rev Psychiatry. 2020 Jan/Feb;28(1):14-25. doi: 10.1097/HRP.0000000000000241.

Abstract

Depression is both prevalent and costly, and many individuals do not adequately respond to existing psychopharmacological and behavioral interventions. The current article describes the use of neuroscience in augmenting behavioral interventions for depression in two primary areas: anhedonia and cognitive deficits/biases. Neuroscience research has increased our understanding of the neural bases of reward processing and regulation of positive affect, and anhedonia among depressed samples can be related to deficits in each of these domains. Treatments that specifically target reward processing and regulation of positive affect in order to reduce anhedonia represent a recent advance in the field. Depression is also associated with aberrant processes relating to working memory, autobiographical memory, attentional bias, and interpretive bias. Neuroscience findings have increasingly been leveraged to augment the efficacy of cognitive-training and bias-modification interventions in these domains. The use of neuroscience to inform the development and augmentation of behavioral interventions for depression is a promising avenue of continued research.

Publication types

  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Affect / physiology
  • Anhedonia / physiology*
  • Attention
  • Behavior Therapy / methods*
  • Brain / physiopathology
  • Cognition
  • Depressive Disorder / physiopathology*
  • Depressive Disorder / therapy*
  • Humans
  • Memory, Short-Term
  • Neurosciences*
  • Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
  • Reward