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Related Concept Videos

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 29, 2025

Sucrose Preference and Novelty-Induced Hypophagia Tests in Rats using an Automated Food Intake Monitoring System
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Altered food liking in depression is driven by macronutrient composition.

Lilly Thurn1, Corinna Schulz1,2, Diba Borgmann3

  • 1Section of Medical Psychology, Department of Psychiatry & Psychotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany.

Psychological Medicine
|February 5, 2025
PubMed
Summary

Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) show altered food reward sensitivity, particularly for high-fat and high-protein foods, suggesting gut-brain signaling disturbances. These findings may inform novel therapeutic approaches for depression.

Keywords:
Appetitecarbohydratesfatfood rewardmajor depressive disorderprotein

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Psychiatry
  • Nutritional Science

Background:

  • Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with appetite and body weight changes, alongside reduced reward sensitivity (anhedonia).
  • The specific mechanisms driving altered reward sensitivity, especially concerning food, remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of food macronutrient composition in altered reward sensitivity in patients with MDD.
  • To compare food wanting and liking ratings between individuals with MDD and healthy controls (HCPs).

Main Methods:

  • A food cue reactivity task was administered to 117 participants (54 MDD patients, 63 HCPs).
  • Participants rated their 'wanting' and 'liking' for various food and non-food items.
  • Associations between reward ratings and food macronutrient composition (carbohydrates, fats, proteins) were analyzed.

Main Results:

  • Patients with MDD reported significantly lower food wanting, but not liking, compared to HCPs.
  • Macronutrient composition significantly improved models predicting wanting and liking.
  • MDD patients showed reduced liking and wanting for high-fat and high-protein foods compared to carbohydrates.
  • Weaker correlations in food preferences were observed in MDD patients, suggesting metabolic signaling disturbances.

Conclusions:

  • Depression-related alterations in food reward are specifically linked to macronutrient content, particularly fats and proteins.
  • Findings suggest potential disturbances in gut-brain signaling pathways in MDD.
  • Interventions targeting the gut microbiome could be a potential therapeutic avenue for normalizing aberrant food reward signals in depression.