Is State Anhedonia Characteristic of Parkinson’s Disease?

Anhedonia, the lowered ability to experience pleasure, is one of the non-motor symptoms in Parkinson’s disease. Recently, the distinction between consummatory and anticipatory anhedonia has been proposed and anhedonia, notably in PD, could constitute a stable characteristic (anhedonia-trait) or secondary symptom (anhedonia-state). Several studies, using healthy control groups, reported high state consummatory and anticipatory anhedonia in PD using the Snaith Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS), but when control groups included subjects with different illnesses no significant differences were reported. The aim of the present study was to compare PD subjects with subjects presenting a non-Parkinson motor neurological disease on the anhedonia subscale of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). This subscale rated consummatory and anticipatory anhedonia state. No significant difference was reported. This result confirmed that PD subjects were not characterized by high levels of state anhedonia when the subjects were compared to subjects with a different disease. Contrary to trait consummatory anhedonia, state anhedonia could be nonspecific to Parkinson’s disease.