Am J Psychiatry 1984; 141:1216-1220
Copyright © 1984 by American Psychiatric Association
Seven-month clinical outcome of anhedonic and normally hedonic depressed inpatients
DC Clark, J Fawcett, E Salazar-Grueso and E Fawcett
Using a measure of capacity for pleasurable experiences (the Pleasure
Scale), the authors compared at admission and 7-month follow-up 74
psychiatric inpatients meeting DSM-III criteria for major depression.
Pleasure scores were stable over 7 months despite the fact that two- thirds
of the sample recovered from depression. The subgroup of subjects who were
most anhedonic at admission were more likely than the remaining subjects to
show clinical recovery but persisted in exhibiting a lower pleasure score
(even when the comparison was limited to recovered subjects). Pleasure
scores were much better predictors of clinical recovery than were
neuroticism scores.
