Self-Report Measures of Anhedonia and Approach Motivation Weakly Correspond to Anhedonia and Depression Assessed via Clinical Interviews

Self-report scales are popular tools for measuring anhedonic experiences and motivational deficits, but how well do they reflect clinically significant anhedonia? Seventy-eight adults participated in face-to-face structured diagnostic interviews: 22 showed clinically significant anhedonia, and 18 met criteria for depression. Analyses of effect sizes comparing the anhedonia and depression groups to their respective controls found large effects, as expected, for measures of depressive symptoms, but surprisingly weak effect sizes (all less than d=.50) for measures of general, social, or physical anhedonia, behavioral activation, and anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. Measures of Neuroticism and Extraversion distinguished the anhedonic and depressed groups from the controls at least as well as measures of anhedonia and motivation. Taken together, the findings suggest that caution is necessary when extending self-report findings to populations with clinically significant symptoms.

Between Temperament and Psychopathology: Examples from Neuropharmacological Challenge Tests in Healthy Humans

Background: This paper tries to demonstrate that the questionnaire-based continuum between temperament traits and psychopathology can also be shown on the biochemical level. A common feature is the incapacity to adapt to external demands, as demonstrated by examples of disturbed hormone cycles as well as neurotransmitter (TM) responses related to affective and impulse control disorders. Methods: Pharmacological challenge tests performed in placebo-controlled balanced crossover experiments with consecutive challenges by serotonin (5-HT), noradrenaline (NA), and dopamine (DA) agonistic drugs were applied to healthy subjects, and individual responsivities of each TM system assessed by respective cortisol and prolactin responses were related to questionnaire-based facets of depressiveness and impulsivity, respectively. Results: The depression-related traits “Fatigue” and “Physical Anhedonia” were characterized by low and late responses to DA stimulation as opposed to “Social Anhedonia,” which rather mirrored the pattern of schizophrenia. Reward-related and premature responding-related impulsivity represented by high scores on “Disinhibition” and “Motor Impulsivity,” respectively, as well as the questionnaire-based components of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, “Cognitive” and “Motor Impulsivity,” could be discriminated by their patterns of DA/NA responses. 5-HT responses suggested that instead of the expected low availability of 5-HT claimed to be associated with impulse control disorders, low NA responses indicated lack of inhibition in impulsivity and high NA responses in depression-related “Anhedonia” indicated suppression of approach motivation. Conclusions: In spite of the flaws of pharmacological challenge tests, they may be suitable for demonstrating similarities in TM affinities between psychopathological disturbances and respective temperament traits and for separating sub-entities of larger disease spectra.

The patients’ view

The use and the choice of standardized assessment tools are necessary for improving identification of negative symptoms and for testing new efficient therapies. Most of the scales on negative symptoms are based on observer rating. Compared to these scales, self-assessments have been overlooked. Nevertheless, they are quite relevant since they are generally simple; they allow the patients to report their own symptoms and so are complementary to the evaluations based on observer ratings; they require the patient’s participation and so improve their involvement in the treatment; they are time-efficient and can be very useful for identification of negative symptoms at the onset of illness. Among the self-assessments, we can distinguish those designed and validated in patients with schizophrenia and others that can be used in schizophrenia while they have been validated in other populations. Among the first group, two recent scales have supplanted old scales, the Motivation and Pleasure Scale–Self-Report (MAP–SR) and the Self-evaluation of Negative Symptoms (SNS). The last one presents all the psychometric properties required. Among the second group, the most used scales are focused on anhedonia and apathy which assess these dimensions in schizophrenia but also in various psychiatric and neurological disorders; the most well-known are the Social Anhedonia Scale (SAS), the Physical Anhedonia Scale (PAS), and more recently are, on the one hand, the Self-reported Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES-S) and on the other, the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) and the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS) which distinguish anticipation and consummatory pleasures.

Link Between Anhedonia and Depression During Early Alcohol Abstinence: Gender Matters

Aims The aim of the present study was to evaluate the relation between anhedonia and depression in alcohol use disorders (AUD) during detoxification: Is trait anhedonia measured at the beginning of detoxification predictive of depressive symptoms observed at the end? Does state anhedonia recover during detoxification as depression does? Gender differences that have been previously observed for depression in AUD were also explored. Methods 81 AUD inpatients were tested at T1 (day 1) and T2 (day 14–18) of withdrawal with the trait Physical Anhedonia Scale, the state anhedonia Snaith–Hamilton Pleasure Scale, the Beck depression inventory and the Spielberger State Anxiety Inventory and compared to 34 control participants, matched for age and gender. Results AUD patients scored significantly higher than controls on depression, anxiety and state and trait anhedonia when they just entered the detoxification unit. Depression, anxiety and state anhedonia decreased between T1 and T2 in AUD patients. In women, state anhedonia at T1 was predictive of depressive symptoms at T2 over and above anxiety and depression at T1. Conclusion In AUD, state anhedonia recovers during detoxification, concurrently to other affective-related symptoms. However, in women, trait anhedonia predicts the level of depression at the end of detoxification, above and beyond anxiety. This finding stresses the importance of addressing anhedonia in the treatment of AUD and emphasizes the need for targeted interventions within clinical settings in this gender. Clinical consequences are discussed.

Psychometric Properties of the Snaith–Hamilton Pleasure Scale and a Facet-Level Analysis of the Relationship Between Anhedonia and Extraversion in a Nonclinical Sample

The aim of this study is to investigate the psychometric properties of the Snaith–Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS) and look at facets of extraversion as predictors of anhedonia. SHAPS is hypothesized to be multidimensional, stable over time in a nonclinical sample, and related to extraversion on both dimension and facet level. Data collection was conducted at baseline ( N = 362) and at a 10-week follow-up ( N = 94). The structural properties of SHAPS were analyzed using principal component analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Multiple regression explored facets of extraversion as predictors of anhedonia. The results show that SHAPS is stable across time ( r = .71, p < .001), with high internal consistency (α = .89). In the principal component analysis, a two-factor model emerged (Social and Physical anhedonia). The confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the two-factor model consisting of Physical anhedonia (α = .81) and Social anhedonia (α = .87) had a better fit than the one-factor model. Higher scores on Gregariousness and Positive emotions at baseline predicted higher scores on the SHAPS total and Social and Physical anhedonia ( p < .05). Lower scores on Assertiveness predicted higher scores on Social anhedonia ( p < .05). These results support the view of anhedonia as a multidimensional concept that should be regarded as a trait, rather than a state or mere bypassing symptom. The relationship between anhedonia and extroversion is best understood by applying a multidimensional approach to anhedonia and by focusing on the facet level of extroversion.

Auditory Vigilance and Working Memory in Youth at Familial Risk for Schizophrenia or Affective Psychosis in the Harvard Adolescent Family High Risk Study

Background: The degree of overlap between schizophrenia (SCZ) and affective psychosis (AFF) has been a recurring question since Kraepelin’s subdivision of the major psychoses. Studying nonpsychotic relatives allows a comparison of disorder-associated phenotypes, without potential confounds that can obscure distinctive features of the disorder. Because attention and working memory have been proposed as potential endophenotypes for SCZ and AFF, we compared these cognitive features in individuals at familial high-risk (FHR) for the disorders. Methods: Young, unmedicated, first-degree relatives (ages, 13–25 years) at FHR-SCZ (n=41) and FHR-AFF (n=24) and community controls (CCs, n=54) were tested using attention and working memory versions of the Auditory Continuous Performance Test. To determine if schizotypal traits or current psychopathology accounted for cognitive deficits, we evaluated psychosis proneness using three Chapman Scales, Revised Physical Anhedonia, Perceptual Aberration, and Magical Ideation, and assessed psychopathology using the Hopkins Symptom Checklist -90 Revised. Results: Compared to controls, the FHR-AFF sample was significantly impaired in auditory vigilance, while the FHR-SCZ sample was significantly worse in working memory. Both FHR groups showed significantly higher levels of physical anhedonia and some psychopathological dimensions than controls. Adjusting for physical anhedonia, phobic anxiety, depression, psychoticism, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms eliminated the FHR-AFF vigilance effects but not the working memory deficits in FHR-SCZ. Conclusions: The working memory deficit in FHR-SZ was the more robust of the cognitive impairments after accounting for psychopathological confounds and is supported as an endophenotype. Examination of larger samples of people at familial risk for different psychoses remains necessary to confirm these findings and to clarify the role of vigilance in FHR-AFF. (JINS, 2016, 22, 1026–1037)

Dimensionality of the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales-Brief Forms in College Students

Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales are one of the most used measuring instruments for the assessment of psychometric risk for psychosis. The main goal of the present study was to analyze the internal structure of the Wisconsin Schizotypy Scales-Brief (WSS-B) forms and the reliability of the scores in a large sample of college students. The final sample was comprised by a total of 1349 students, 288 males, with a mean age of 20.48 years (SD = 2.58). The results indicated that the WSS-B scores presented adequate psychometric properties. Cronbach’s alfa coefficient for total scores in WSS-B ranged from 0.86 to 0.93. Analysis of the internal structure of the WSS-B, through confirmatory factor analysis and exploratory structural equation modeling, yielded a four factor solution (Magical Ideation, Perceptual Aberration, Social Anhedonia, and Physical Anhedonia) as the most adequate. Statistically significant differences in mean scores of WSS-B by sex were found. These results provided new validity evidence of the WSS-B scores in an independent sample of nonclinical young adults. The WSS-B seems to be useful, brief, and easy to administrate for the screening of extended psychosis phenotype in the general population.