Inflammation briefly dampens pleasure and the desire to socialize, placebo-controlled study finds
Inflammation may do more than make people feel sick. In a placebo-controlled study, triggering inflammation in healthy women reduced their desire to socialize and ability to feel pleasure, even after accounting for sickness symptoms.
A recent study published in Psychoneuroendocrinology found that inducing inflammation in healthy women temporarily reduced their ability to feel pleasure and desire for social interaction. Conducted by researchers at the Norman Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the University of California, Los Angeles, the double-blind, placebo-controlled trial involved 40 healthy women aged 25 to 44.
Participants were randomly assigned to receive a low dose of endotoxin, which triggers a short-lived inflammatory response, or a saline solution injection as a placebo. After the injection, women who received the endotoxin reported increased anhedonia, a reduced ability to experience pleasure, and a decreased desire to socialize compared to those who received the placebo.
These effects on motivation were specific to social activities, as endotoxin did not significantly alter participation in other tasks, such as solving puzzles or watching film clips. The increase in anhedonia was short-lived, with symptoms returning to baseline levels four hours after the injection, despite the persistence of inflammatory markers.
The study suggests that acute inflammation may influence reward-related pathways, contributing to inflammation-associated depression, particularly in women who are more vulnerable to depression.
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