Am J Psychiatry 1977; 134:794-797
Copyright © 1977 by American Psychiatric Association
Anhedonia and schizophrenia
M Harrow, RR Grinker, PS Holzman and L Kayton
The authors administered semi-structured interviews to 187 psychiatric
inpatients to determine the role of anhedonia in schizophrenia. The
interviews were taperecorded and then given blind ratings for anhedonia on
a 7-point scale. Schizophrenic patients had significantly more anhedonia
than nonschizophrenics, although many of the latter group had anhedonic
tendencies. Most of the difference between the groups resulted from high
anhedonia scores for chronic schizophrenics; less anhedonia was found in
the acute schizophrenic patients. The data indicate that anhedonia is not
necessary or unique to schizophrenia but is a prominent factor in chronic
schizophrenia.
