Anhedonia in major depression: State or trait?

Aim of the study: In major depression, anhedonia (a loss of capacity to feel pleasure) had differently been considered as a "core" symptom of depressive state or as a premorbid personological trait getting ready to development of the disorder. Aim of the study is to examine psychopathological characteristics of anhedonia in depressed patients and to investigate its clinical relations with depressive and negative symptoms. Materials and methods: Forty-five subjects with major depressive disorder were studied using Scales for Physical and Social Anhedonia (PAS and SAS), Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS). Results: Anhedonia has reached high significant levels only in 26.7% of depressed sample (n = 12). This "anhedonic" subgroup was distinguished by high scores in depression (HDRS total) and in negative dimension (SANS total). Positive correlations between anhedonia (PAS total and SAS total [as independent variables]), depressive and negative symptoms (HDRS total and SANS total [as dependent variables]) have also been described. Conclusions: In this study, anhedonia appears to be a predictive factor (psychopathological forerunner) for the developmental forms of major depressions with high clinical severity of depression and negative symptomatology (subtype "melancholic", "endogenomorphic" or "vital").