Anhedonia in schizophrenia:
a review of assessment strategies
by
Horan WP, Kring AM, Blanchard JJ.
University of California, Los Angeles, USA.
horan@ucla.edu
Schizophr Bull. 2006 Apr;32(2):259-73.

ABSTRACT

Anhedonia, the diminished capacity to experience pleasant emotions, is a common, treatment-resistant feature of schizophrenia that is often included among the negative symptoms of this disorder. This selective review describes the 3 most commonly used approaches to assess anhedonia in schizophrenia: interview-based measures, self-report trait questionnaires, and laboratory-based assessments of emotional experience. For each assessment approach, psychometric properties, relationships to other symptoms and features of schizophrenia, and relationships with the other assessment approaches are evaluated. It is concluded that anhedonia can be reliably assessed and constitutes a distinctive, clinically important aspect of schizophrenia that should be included in a comprehensive evaluation of negative symptoms. Current efforts to define more precisely the nature of the hedonic deficit in schizophrenia are discussed, and recommendations for optimal assessment of anhedonia in clinical trials of novel treatments for negative symptoms are provided.

Anhedonia
Schizophrenia
Antipsychotics
NMDA antagonists
New antipsychotics
Psychotic depression
Atypical antipsychotics
Bipolars v schizophrenics
Schizophrenia: neuroleptics
Are atypicals antidepressants?
Serotonin model of schizophrenia
Dopamine model of schizophrenia
Amisulpride for negative symptoms
Partial dopamine agonists for psychosis
Big Pharma and drugs for schizophrenics

Refs
and further reading

HOME
HedWeb
Nootropics
cocaine.wiki
Future Opioids
BLTC Research
MDMA/Ecstasy
Superhapiness?
Utopian Surgery?
The Abolitionist Project
The Hedonistic Imperative
The Reproductive Revolution
Critique of Huxley's Brave New World

The Good Drug Guide
The Responsible Parent's Guide
To Healthy Mood Boosters For All The Family