Anhedonia is an important but understudied element of a neuroadaptive model underlying vulnerability to relapse in opioid dependence. Previous research using fMRI has shown reduced activation to pleasant stimuli in rostral prefrontal cortex among heroin-dependent patients in early recovery. This study evaluated the presence of anhedonia among recently withdrawn prescription opiate dependent pat...

Anhedonia can be defined as a condition in which the hedonic capacity is totally or partially lost. From a psychobiological perspective, several researchers proposed that anhedonia has a putative neural substrate, the dopaminergic mesolimbic and mesocortical reward circuit, which involves the ventral tegmental area, the ventral striatum and part of the prefrontal cortex. Anhedonia is, besides d...

This study examined the relationship among symptoms of anhedonia and suicidal ideation at baseline, at termination, and over time in 1529 adult psychiatric inpatients. Anhedonia was associated with suicidality cross-sectionally at baseline and at termination. In addition, change in anhedonia from baseline to termination predicted change in suicidality from baseline to termination, as well as le...

Social anhedonia has been employed in psychometric high-risk studies to identify putative schizotypes. To date, this research has focused almost exclusively on college samples. The current study sought to examine the validity of social anhedonia as an indicator of risk for schizophrenia-spectrum disorders within a community sample. Furthermore, we evaluated the role of other individual differen...

Two studies examined whether self-reported anhedonia is associated with 2 facets of emotional experience, valence and arousal. In Study 1, in multiple assessments of emotional experience (e.g., naturalistic and lab contexts and social and nonsocial situations), people with elevated social anhedonia (n = 40) reported less intensity of positive affect than both controls (n = 30) and people with e...

Social anhedonia is a promising vulnerability marker for schizophrenia-spectrum pathology. Prior research has demonstrated that individuals with psychometrically-defined social anhedonia show a range of "schizophrenia-like" neurocognitive abnormalities. However, this research is limited in that it is based largely on the study of college students. The present article reports findings from a lon...

People listen to music because it is pleasurable. However, there are individual differences in the reward value of music. At the extreme low end of this continuum, individuals who derive no pleasure from music are said to have 'musical anhedonia.' Cases of acquired musical anhedonia following focal brain damage are rare, with only a handful having been reported in the scientific literature. Her...

CONTEXT Depression consistently predicts recurrent events and mortality in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS), but it has 2 core diagnostic criteria with distinct biological correlates-depressed mood and anhedonia (loss of pleasure or interest). OBJECTIVE To determine if depressed mood and/or anhedonia predict 1-year medical outcomes for patients with ACS. DESIGN Observational coho...

Anhedonia, the loss of interest and pleasure in previously enjoyable experiences, is a core symptom depression characteristic other mental health physical problems. Most self-report measures anhedonia has been developed for use with adults their suitability adolescents questionable. In this article, we describe development psychometric qualities new measure, Anhedonia Scale Adolescents (ASA), d...

The resurgence of interest in anhedonia within major depression has been fuelled by clinical trials demonstrating its utility in predicting antidepressant response as well as recent conceptualizations focused on the role and manifestation of anhedonia in depression. Historically, anhedonia has been understood as a "loss of pleasure", yet neuropsychological and neurobiological studies reveal a m...