Sustained effects of repeated levodopa (L-DOPA) administration on reward circuitry, effort-based motivation, and anhedonia in depressed patients with higher inflammation.

ABSTRACT: Inflammatory biomarkers like C-reactive protein (CRP) are elevated in a subset of patients with depression and have been associated with lower functional connectivity (FC) in a ventral striatum (VS) to ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) reward circuit and symptoms of anhedonia. Evidence linking these relationships to the effects of inflammation on dopamine is consistent with our recent findings that acute levodopa (L-DOPA) increased VS-vmPFC FC in association with deceased anhedonia in depressed patients with higher but not lower CRP (>2 versus ≤ 2 mg/L). To determine whether repeated L-DOPA administration caused sustained effects on FC and behavior in these patients, medically stable depressed outpatients with CRP > 2 mg/L and anhedonia (n = 18) received one week of three doses of L-D

SUBMITTER: Bekhbat M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11903141 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature