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NNadir

(33,532 posts) Sat Apr 15, 2023, 10:02 AM Apr 2023

A word that's new to me: "anhedonic."

My reading this weekend is in Robert Trivers' The Folly of Fools

Subtitle:

The Logic of Deceit and Self Deception in Human Life."

The sentence is in a chapter about immunology referring to the period just after recovery from a disease caused by a pathogenic organism, and the need for an exhausted energetically expensive immune system to regenerate:

To do this, it induced a state of tomorrow, apathy, and lack of interest in life of the larger organism - "the blahs." This is achieved by releasing a hormone (a particular cytokine) that acts on the brain to make the person anhedonic, that is, not taking pleasure in anything.

Cool word, but one that a person should hope to have avoid when referring to oneself or reference to oneself by others, I think.

6 replies

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A word that's new to me: "anhedonic." (Original Post) NNadir Apr 2023 OP

i've long subscribed to the theory that depression is an adaptation. mopinko Apr 2023 #1

Does it identify dweller Apr 2023 #2

Not specifically. Cytokines represent a large set of signaling small proteins which are tightly... NNadir Apr 2023 #3

If I am understanding correctly.... cilla4progress Apr 2023 #4

Feel better. Hopefully it's just the cytokines kicking in to give your immune system the energy... NNadir Apr 2023 #5

Very kind of you. cilla4progress Apr 2023 #6

mopinko

(70,153 posts)

1. i've long subscribed to the theory that depression is an adaptation.

Reply to NNadir (Original post)

Sat Apr 15, 2023, 10:06 AM

Apr 2023

to do just this, to step back, heal, to silence the part of the brain that is always driving us toward more.

dweller

(23,647 posts)

2. Does it identify

Reply to NNadir (Original post)

Sat Apr 15, 2023, 10:29 AM

Apr 2023

the hormone released to introduce anhedonia?

✌🏻

NNadir

(33,532 posts)

3. Not specifically. Cytokines represent a large set of signaling small proteins which are tightly...

Reply to dweller (Reply #2)

Sat Apr 15, 2023, 10:42 AM

Apr 2023

...involved in immune system functioning.

It is, perhaps, something I should look into since my company is working on a project - in which I am intimately involved - on immune system interface with neurophysiology, although the particular application with which I'm involved is targeted toward Alzheimer's and not mood disorders.

It's probably already being explored - I seldom have any ideas that prove in the long run to be original after I look them up - but I would guess that this mood altering cytokine might represent a drug target, perhaps by introducing a cytokine binding moiety, to the treatment of some, if not all, mood disorders.