Measuring feelings of pleasure and interest more accurately in young people with mental health conditions

Led by Dr Eleanor Leigh at the University of Oxford

People with common mental health conditions like anxiety and depression often have difficulties anticipating, experiencing, and learning from pleasurable experiences, as well as lacking interest in activities they would usually enjoy. This is known as anhedonia, and it is an under-researched - yet highly distressing – symptom, which is linked to problems with the way the brain processes rewards.

Through her research to date, Dr Eleanor Leigh and her team at the University of Oxford have focused on social anxiety in teenagers, examining its cognitive and behavioural mechanisms to develop OSCA, which stands for ‘Online Social anxiety Cognitive therapy for Adolescents’. This digital psychological therapy is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and is currently being evaluated for use by NHS services.

Now, supported by their Emerging Leaders Prize funding, Eleanor and her team will expand their approach to address the issue of anhedonia. To achieve this, they will develop a new measure of the brain’s reward system, which is more reliable and accurate than current methods, and is appropriately tailored to children and young people. The long-term aim of this work is to develop psychological therapies which can boost positive emotions and combat the debilitating effects of anhedonia.