Individuals with depression have difficulty anticipating pleasure, which can negatively impact motivation and functioning. One factor in this may be impairments in their episodic future thinking (EFT). This study examined whether enhancing EFT through increasing detail/vividness and mental imagery would increase anticipatory pleasure among individuals with Major Depressive Disorder. A randomized start-point, single case series design was used. Depressed outpatients (N = 7) completed surveys throughout the day over 2 wks to nominate upcoming positive events and rate them on EFT detail/vividness, mental imagery, and anticipatory pleasure. At a randomized start-point, activities to enhance the detail/vividness and mental imagery for these upcoming events were introduced. Significant increases in detail and imagery were observed when EFT activities were introduced, which correlated with increases in how pleasurable it was thought the activities would be and how pleasurable it was thinking about them. Enhancing EFT may be a mechanism to increase anticipatory pleasure in depression. Implications for treatment are discussed.

中文翻译：

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通过增强情节性的未来思维，在重大抑郁症中增加预期的愉悦感：随机单例系列试验

患有抑郁症的人难以预期快乐，这会对动机和机能产生负面影响。其中一个因素可能是其未来情节思维（EFT）的损害。这项研究探讨了通过增加细节/活力和心理意象来增强EFT是否会增加患有重性抑郁症的人的预期愉悦感。使用了随机起点，单例系列设计。郁闷门诊（ñ = 7）在2周内全天完成调查，以提名即将到来的积极事件，并对他们的EFT细节/活力，心理意象和预期愉悦度进行评分。在随机的起点上，开展了旨在增强这些即将发生的事件的细节/生动性和心理意象的活动。引入电子转帐（EFT）活动后，在细节和图像上的显着增加，与人们认为活动的愉快程度以及对活动的愉悦感相关。增强EFT可能是增加抑郁症预期乐趣的机制。讨论对治疗的意义。