Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Anhedonia in Schizophrenia: A Brief History and Overview of the Construct

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Anhedonia: A Comprehensive Handbook Volume II

Abstract

Though studied for decades in relation to mood disorders, anhedonia has only more recently become widely discussed in relation to schizophrenia, despite being described in the earliest writings describing the phenomenon. In addition to being a self-evident detriment to quality of life, anhedonia is a predictor of a number of negative outcomes, including poor quality of life, social dysfunction and psychosis vulnerability. Recent research has generated many questions about the nature and course of anhedonia in schizophrenia, including questions about its elements and place within the larger picture of the psychopathology of schizophrenia. In the present chapter, we review two distinction between subtypes of anhedonia in schizophrenia: the social/physical distinction, as well as the anticipatory/consummatory distinction. We then review literature on the affective, cognitive and interpersonal components of anhedonia, and explore the possibility that there are two forms of anhedonia; one which is primarily a negative and associated with deficits in metacognition and one which is secondary to depressive symptoms. Finally, we discuss directions for future research.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Abbreviations

BPRS:

Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale

CAINS:

Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms

CPPS:

Chapman Psychosis Proneness Scales

MAS-A:

Metacognitive Assessment Scale Abbreviated

SANS:

Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms

References

  1. Chapman LJ, Chapman JP, Raulin ML. Scales for physical and social anhedonia. J Abnorm Psychol. 1976;85:374–82.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Feigner JP, Robins E, Guze SB, et al. Diagnostic criteria for use in psychiatric research. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1972;26:57–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Treadway MT, Zald DH. Reconsidering anhedonia in depression: lessons from translational neuroscience. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2011;35:537–55.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Wolf DH. Anhedonia in schizophrenia. Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2006;8:322–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  5. Bleuler E. Dementia praecox or the group of schizophrenias. Oxford: International Universities Press; 1950.

    Google Scholar 

  6. Kraepelin E. Dementia praecox and paraphrenia. Translated by Barclay RM. Huntington, NY: Krieger; 1971(1919).

    Google Scholar 

  7. Meehl PE. Schizotaxia, schizotypy, schizophrenia. Am Psychol. 1962;17:827–38.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Rado S. Psychoanalysis of behavior. New York: Grune & Stratton; 1962.

    Google Scholar 

  9. American Psychiatric Association Task Force on DSM-IV, editor. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Publishing; 1994.

    Google Scholar 

  10. Horan WP, Blanchard JJ, Kring AM, et al. Anhedonia in schizophrenia: a review of assessment strategies. Schizophr Bull. 2006;32:259–73.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Ritsner MS, Arbtman M, Lisker A. Anhedonia is an important factor of health- related quality of life deficit in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2011;199:845–53.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Chapman LJ, Chapman JP, Kwapil TR. Putatively psychosis-prone subjects 10 years later. J Abnorm Psychol. 1994;103:171–83.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Blanchard JJ, Mueser KT, Bellack AS. Anhedonia, positive and negative affect, and social functioning in schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull. 1998;24:413–24.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Cohen AS, Dinzeo TJ, Nienow TM, et al. Diminished emotionality and social functioning in schizophrenia. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2005;193:796–802.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Tully LM, Lincoln SH, Hooker CI. Impaired executive control of emotional information in social anhedonia. Psychiatry Res. 2012;197:29–35.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  16. Kwapil TR, Silvia PJ, Myin-Germeys I. The social world of the socially anhedonia: exploring the daily ecology of asociality. J Res Pers. 2009;43:103–6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Fanning JR, Berman ME, Guillot CE. Social anhedonia and aggressive behavior. Personal Individ Diff. 2012;53:868–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Keltner D, Kring AM. Emotion, social function, and psychopathology. Rev Gen Psychol. 1998;2:320–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Crespo-Facorro B, Paradiso S, Andreasen NC, et al. Neural mechanisms of anhedonia in schizophrenia: a PET study of response to pleasant and unpleasant odors. J Am Med Assoc. 2001;286:479–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Horan WP, Reise SP, Subotnik KL, et al. The validity of Psychosis Proneness Scales as vulnerability indicators in recent onset schizophrenia patients. Schizophr Res. 2008;100:224–36.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Kwapil TR. Social anhedonia as a predictor of the development of schizophrenia spectrum disorders. J Abnorm Psychol. 1998;107:558–65.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Erlenmeyer-Kimling L, Cornblatt BA, Rock D, et al. The New York high-risk project: anhedonia, attentional deviance, and psychopathology. Schizophr Bull. 1993;19:141–53.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Gooding DC, Tallent KA, Matts CW. Clinical status of at-risk individuals 5 years later: further validation of the psychometric high-risk strategy. J Abnorm Psychol. 2005;114:170–5.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  24. Velthorst E, Meijer C. The association between social anhedonia, withdrawal, and psychotic symptoms in general and high-risk populations. Schizophr Res. 2012;138:290–4.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  25. Dowd EC, Barch DM. Anhedonia and emotional experience in schizophrenia: neural and behavioral indicators. Biol Psychiatry. 2010;67:902–11.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  26. Harvey P, Armony J, Malla A, et al. Functional neural substrates of self reported physical anhedonia in non-clinical individuals and in patients with schizophrenia. J Psychiatr Res. 2010;44:707–16.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  27. Chapman LJ, Chapman JP. Revised physical anhedonia scale. 1978. Unpublished test.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Eckblad M, Chapman LJ, Chapman JP, et al. Revised social anhedonia scale. 1982. Unpublished test.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Berenbaum H, Oltmanns TF. Emotional experience and expression in schizophrenia and depression. J Abnorm Pschol. 1992;101:37–44.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  30. Blanchard JJ, Bellack AS, Mueser KT. Affective and social-behavioral correlates of physical and social anhedonia in schizophrenia. J Abnorm Psychol. 1994;103:719–28.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  31. Loas G, Boyer P, Legrand A, et al. Anhedonia and negative symptomatology in chronic schizophrenia. Compr Psychiatry. 1996;37:5–11.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  32. Loas G, Noisette C, Legrand A, et al. Is anhedonia a specific dimension in chronic schizophrenia? Schizophr Bull. 2000;26:495–506.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  33. Andreasen NC. Negative symptoms in schizophrenia: definition and reliability. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1982;39:784–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  34. Herbener ES, Harrow M. The course of anhedonia during 10 years of schizophrenia illness. J Abnorm Psychol. 2002;111:237.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  35. Blanchard JJ, Horan WP, Brown SA. Diagnostic differences in social anhedonia: a longitudinal study of schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. J Abnorm Psychol. 2001;110:363–71.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  36. Llerena K, Park SG, Couture SM, et al. Social anhedonia and affiliation: examining behavior and subjective reactions within a social interaction. Psychiatry Res. 2012;200:679–86.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  37. Schuck JR, Leventhal D, Rothstein H, et al. Physical anhedonia and schizophrenia. J Abnorm Psychol. 1984;93:342–4.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  38. Loas G, Monestes JL, Ingelaere A, et al. Stability and relationships between trait or state anhedonia and schizophrenic symptoms in schizophrenia: a 13-year follow-up study. Psychiatry Res. 2009;66:132–40.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Germine LT, Garrido L, Bruce L, et al. Social anhedonia is associated with neural abnormalities during face emotion processing. Neuroimage. 2011;58:935–45.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  40. Reise SP, Horan WP, Blanchard JJ. The challenges of fitting an item-response theory model to the social anhedonia scale. J Pers Assess. 2011;93:213–24.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  41. Blanchard JJ, Cohen AS. The structure of negative symptoms in schizophrenia: implications for assessment. Schizophr Bull. 2006;32:238–45.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  42. Horan WP, Green MF, Kring AM, et al. Does anhedonia in schizophrenia reflect faulty memory for subjectively experienced emotions? J Abnorm Psychol. 2006;115:496–508.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  43. Horan WP, Blanchard JJ, Clark LA, et al. Affective traits in schizophrenia and schizotypy. Schizophr Bull. 2008;34:856–74.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  44. Kring AM, Moran EK. Emotional response deficits in schizophrenia: insights from affective science. Schizophr Bull. 2008;34:819–34.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  45. Cohen AS, Minor KS. Emotional experience in patients with schizophrenia revisited: meta-analysis of laboratory studies. Schizophr Bull. 2010;36:143–50.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  46. Myin-Germeys I, Delespaul PA. Schizophrenia patients are more emotionally active than is assumed based on their behavior. Schizophr Bull. 2000;26:847–54.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  47. Aghevli MA, Blanchard JJ, Horan WP. The expression and experience of emotion in schizophrenia: a study of social interactions. Psychiatry Res. 2003;119:261–70.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  48. Klein D. Depression and anhedonia. In: Clark DC, Fawcett J, editors. Anhedonia and affect deficit states. New York: PMA Publishing; 1984. p. 1–34.

    Google Scholar 

  49. Depue RA, Iacono WG. Neurobehavioral aspects of affective disorders. Annu Rev Psychol. 1989;40:457–92.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  50. Kring AM, Caponigro JM. Emotion in schizophrenia: where feeling meets thinking. Curr Dir Psychol Sci. 2010;19:255–9.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  51. Gard D, Gard M, Kring AM, et al. Anticipatory and consummatory components of the experience of pleasure: a scale development study. J Res Pers. 2006;40:1086–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Chan RCK, Wang Y, Huang J, et al. Anticipatory and consummatory components of the experience of pleasure in schizophrenia: cross cultural validation and extension. Psychiatry Res. 2010;175:181–3.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  53. Favrod J, Ernst F, Guiliuana C, et al. Validation of the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) in a French-speaking environment. Encéphale. 2009;35:241–8.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  54. Strauss GP, Wilbur RC, Warren KR, et al. Anticipatory vs. consummatory pleasure: what is the nature of hedonic deficits in schizophrenia? Psychiatry Res. 2011;187:36–41.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  55. Fertout E, Scoury D, Lefebvre O, et al. Anhedonia in Kraepelinian schizophrenia. Psychol Rep. 2012;111:755–60.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  56. Buck B, Lysaker PH. Consummatory and anticipatory anhedonia in schizophrenia: stability, and associations with emotional distress and social function over six months. Psychiatry Res. 2013;205:30–5.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  57. Cohen AS, Najolia GM, Brown LA, et al. The state-trait disjunction of anhedonia in schizophrenia: potential affective, cognitive and social-based mechanisms. Clin Psychol Rev. 2011;31:440–8.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  58. Gross JJ. The emerging field of emotion regulation: an integrative review. Rev Gen Psychol. 1998;2:271–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  59. Westen D, Muderrisoglu S, Fowler C, et al. Affect regulation and affective experience: individual differences, group differences and measurement using a Q-sort procedure. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1997;65:429–39.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  60. Strauss GP, Gold JM. A new perspective on anhedonia in schizophrenia. Am J Psychiatry. 2012;169:364–73.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  61. Neumann A, Blairy S, Lecompte D, et al. Specificity deficit in the recollection of emotional memories in schizophrenia. Conscious Cogn. 2007;16:469–84.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  62. Green MJ, Williams LM, Davidson D. Visual scanpaths to threat related faces in deluded schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res. 2003;119:271–85.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  63. Phillips ML, Senior C, David AS. Perception of threat in schizophrenics with persecutory delusions: an investigation using visual scan paths. Psychol Med. 2000;30:157–67.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  64. Aakre JM, Seghers JP, St-Hilaire A. Attributional style in delusional patients: a comparison of remitted paranoid, remitted nonparanoid, and current paranoid patients with nonpsychiatric controls. Schizophr Bull. 2009;35:994–1002.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  65. Gold JM, Waltz JA, Prentice KJ, et al. Reward processing in schizophrenia: a deficit in the representation of value. Schizophr Bull. 2008;34:835–47.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  66. Heerey EA, Gold JM. Patients with schizophrenia demonstrate dissociation between affective experience and motivated behavior. J Abnorm Psychol. 2007;116:268–78.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  67. Prentice KJ, Gold JM, Buchanan RW. The Wisconsin Card Sorting impairment in schizophrenia is evident in the first four trials. Schizophr Res. 2008;106:81–7.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  68. Lysaker PH, Vohs JL, Ballard R, et al. Metacognition, self-reflection and recovery in schizophrenia. Future Neurol. 2013;8:103–15.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  69. Hamm JA, Renard SB, Fogley F, et al. Metacognition and social cognition in schizophrenia: stability and relationship to concurrent and prospective symptom assessments. J Clin Psychol. 2012;68:1303–12.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  70. Norris CJ, Larsen JT, Crawford E, Cacioppo JT. Better (or worse) for some than others: individual differences in the positivity offset and negativity bias. J Res Pers. 2011;45:100–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  71. Ito T, Cacioppo JT. Variations on a human universal: individual differences in positivity offset and negativity bias. Cogn Emot. 2005;19:1–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  72. Robinson MD, Clore GL. Belief and feeling: evidence for an accessibility model of emotional self-report. Psychol Bull. 2002;128:934–60.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  73. Romney DM, Candido CL. Anhedonia in depression and schizophrenia: a reexamination. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2001;189:735–40.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  74. Wilson TD, Gilbert DT. Affective forecasting. Adv Exp Soc Psychol. 2003;35:345–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  75. Strauss GP. The emotion paradox of anhedonia in schizophrenia: or is it? Schizophr Bull. 2013;39:247–50.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  76. Kirkpatrick B, Fenton WS, Carpenter WT. The NIMH-MATRICS consensus statement on negative symptoms. Schizophr Bull. 2006;32:214–9.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  77. Andreasen NC, Arndt S, Alliger R. Symptoms of schizophrenia: methods, meanings, and mechanisms. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1995;52:341–51.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  78. Horan WP, Kring AM, Gur RE, et al. Development and psychometric validation of Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS). Schizophr Res. 2011;132:140–5.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  79. Ritsner MS. Anhedonia of patients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder is attributed to personality-related factors rather than to state-dependent clinical. Clin Schizophr Relat Psychoses. 2013;1:1–32.

    Google Scholar 

  80. Forbes C, Blanchard JJ, Bennett M, et al. Initial development and preliminary validation of a new negative symptom measure: the Clinical Assessment Interview for Negative Symptoms (CAINS). Schizophr Res. 2010;124:36–42.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  81. Kring AM, Gur RE, Blanchard JJ, et al. The Clinical Assessment Interview For Negative Symptoms (CAINS): final development and validation. Am J Psychiatry. 2013;170:165–72.

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  82. Buck KD, Hamish McLeod H, Gumley A, et al. Anhedonia and depression in schizophrenia: comparisons of levels of deficits in metacognition across three profiles. (Submitted).

    Google Scholar 

  83. Lysaker PH, Carcione A, Dimaggio G, et al. Metacognition amidst narratives of self and illness in schizophrenia: associations with neurocognition, symptoms, insight and quality of life. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2005;112:64–71.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  84. Lysaker PH, Buck KD, Fogley R, et al. The mutual development of intersubjectivity and metacognitive capacity in the psychotherapy for persons with schizophrenia with severe paranoid delusions. J Contemp Psychother. 2013;43:63–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  85. Lysaker PH, Buck KD, Carcione A, et al. Addressing metacognitive capacity for self-reflection in the psychotherapy for schizophrenia: a conceptual model of the key tasks and processes. Psychol Psychother. 2011;84:58–69.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  86. Salvatore G, Lysaker PH, Gumley A, et al. Out of illness experience: metacognition-oriented therapy for promoting self-awareness in individuals with psychosis. Am J Psychother. 2012;66:85–106.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  87. Bargenquast R, Schweitzer RD. Enhancing sense of recovery and self reflectivity in people with schizophrenia: a pilot study of metacognitive narrative psychotherapy. Psychol Psychother. In press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB #3270, Davie Hall, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599, USA

    Benjamin Buck

  2. Roudebush VA Medical Center, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Paul H. Lysaker Ph.D.

  3. Department of Psychiatry, Indiana University Medical School, Indianapolis, IN, USA

    Paul H. Lysaker Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Benjamin Buck
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Paul H. Lysaker Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Benjamin Buck .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Haifa & Sha'ar Menashe Mental Health Center, Israel Institute of Technology, Hadera, Israel

    Michael S. Ritsner

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Buck, B., Lysaker, P.H. (2014). Anhedonia in Schizophrenia: A Brief History and Overview of the Construct. In: Ritsner, M. (eds) Anhedonia: A Comprehensive Handbook Volume II. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8610-2_1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8610-2_1

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-017-8609-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-017-8610-2

  • eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation