The Relationship between Anhedonia and Positive, Negative, and General Symptomatology in Patients with Schizophrenia

Abstract

An inability to experience pleasure or a reduction in the ability to do so is a prominent feature of schizophrenia that is often included among the negative symptoms of the disorder. As a whole, dysfunction in the affective experience of pleasure in patients with schizophrenia is poorly understood and is mediated by a number of cognitive and emotional processes. Whilst there is evidence that patients with schizophrenia have an impaired ability to derive and experience pleasure from non-current tasks, there is some evidence that they report current pleasurable experiences similar to non-clinical control participants. Previous studies investigating anhedonia have a number of methodological shortcomings that fail to examine the impact of general symptomology on the ability to experience pleasure. This current study involved 55 adults meeting the criteria for a diagnosis of schizophrenia. We looked specifically at relationships between anhedonia and positive, negative and general symptomatology. The results support the notion that anhedonia may best be considered as a separate phenomenon from negative symptoms of schizophrenia and from related symptomatology. The implications of these findings are considered in relation to future treatment initiatives.