Is anhedonia a specific dimension in chronic schizophrenia?

This article explores the relationships among anhedonia, depression, and schizophrenic symptomatology in chronic schizophrenia. To explore these relationships, factor analysis methods were used to analyze the latent organization of the variables. The Fawcett Clark Pleasure Capacity Scale-Physical Pleasure (FCPCS-PP) and the abridged version of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were completed by 150 subjects who met research diagnostic criteria for definite chronic schizophrenia. The schizophrenic symptomatology was rated using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Two separate exploratory principal components analyses were completed, followed by varimax rotation. The first was made on the correlation matrix comprising items from both the FCPCS-PP and PANSS and yielded a five-factor solution with virtually no overlap of the significant factor loadings for the items from each scale. The second was made on the correlation matrix comprising items from both the FCPCS-PP and BDI and yielded a two-factor solution with virtually no overlap of the significant factor loadings for the items from each scale. Confirmatory factor analyses corresponding to the two exploratory factor analyses were done to examine the goodness of fit of the five-factor solution versus a four-factor solution and the two-factor solution versus a one-factor solution. The five-factor and the two-factor solutions yielded the best fit to the data relative to the other models tested. The findings support the view that part of anhedonia is a construct that is distinct and separate from depression and schizophrenic symptomatology in chronic schizophrenia.