Social anhedonia as a predictor of the development of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

Abstract

College undergraduates (n = 34) identified by deviant scores (at least 1.96 SD above the mean) on the Revised Social Anhedonia (SocAnh) Scale (M. Eckblad, L. J. Chapman, J. P. Chapman, & M. Mishlove, 1982) were compared with control participants (n = 139) at an initial assessment and at a 10-year follow-up evaluation. Twenty-four percent of the SocAnh group were diagnosed with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders at the follow-up compared with only 1% of the control group, despite the fact that there had been no such difference between the groups at the initial assessment 10 years earlier. The SocAnh group exceeded the control group on severity of psychotic-like experiences and had poorer overall adjustment at the follow-up but not at the initial assessment. The groups did not differ on mood symptoms or substance-use disorders. Thus. the SocAnh Scale, unlike the Perceptual Aberration and Magical Ideation Scales, appears to identify individuals at specific risk for future development of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders.

The validity of Psychosis Proneness Scales as vulnerability indicators in recent-onset schizophrenia patients

“…Anhedonia measured by the Psychosis Proneness scales and conceptually related scales is a substantially heritable trait (Berenbaum and McGrew 1993;Berenbaum et al 1990;Kendler et al 1991;Linney 2003;MacDonald et al 2001), is elevated in subjects with schizotypal personality disorder (Camisa et al 2005), and specifically predicts the later development of schizophrenia spectrum disorders in psychometric high-risk samples (Gooding et al 2005;Kwapil 1998). In addition, elevated anhedonia is frequently reported in patients' biological relatives Franke et al 1993;Grove et al 1991;Katsanis et al 1990;Kendler et al 1996).…”

“…Individuals with elevated scores on the PerAb, MagId, SocAnh, and PhysAnh demonstrate psychological, neurocognitive, and psychophysiological disturbances resembling those of schizophrenia patients, while the presence of such disturbances is less clear in individuals with elevated ImpNon (Edell 1995;Fernandes and Miller 1995;Horan et al 2004). In the few prospective studies, PerAb and MagId predicted the development of symptoms of psychotic as well as other psychiatric disorders (Chapman et al 1994;Gooding et al 2005), SocAnh more specifically predicted symptoms of schizophrenia spectrum disorders (Gooding et al 2005;Kwapil 1998), and PhysAnh and ImpNon did not predict later psychosis (Chapman et al 1994). …”

Reward circuitry dysfunction in psychiatric and neurodevelopmental disorders and genetic syndromes: animal models and clinical findings

“…Anhedonia has been hypothesized to be a core feature of schizophrenia [349-351], and it has been suggested that individuals with high levels of social anhedonia are more likely to develop schizophrenia-spectrum disorders [352], although the link between anhedonia and the so-called schizophrenia prodrome has not been firmly established [353]. The centrality of incentive motivation deficits to schizophrenia is suggested by the long-standing hypotheses regarding the role of DA disturbances in the pathophysiology of the disorder [354-356].…”

The dimensional structure of the Wisconsin schizotypy scales: Factor identification and construct validity

“…Finally, the rate of psychosis leapt to 40% in the Magical Ideation-Social Anhedonia subjects who also reported psychotic-like experiences at the initial assessment. Kwapil 27 reported that 24% of individuals scoring high on the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale exhibited schizophrenia-spectrum illnesses as compared with 1% of controls at a 10-year reassessment. The Physical Anhedonia Scale has not been an effective predictor of psychosis in longitudinal studies of college students.…”