Temporal Experience Of Pleasure Scale Research Articles

Individuals with psychosis and a lifetime history of cannabis use show greater deficits in emotional experience compared to non-using peers

Background: While previous research suggests that active cannabis use is a barrier to the emotional experiences of anticipating pleasure and expressing emotion in early psychosis, the relationship between lifetime cannabis use, emotional experience and social function over time has been understudied.Aims: This study sought to characterize the influence of lifetime cannabis use on emotional experience in prolonged psychosis and the influence of the interaction of cannabis use and emotional expression on social function.Methods: Emotional expression, experience of pleasure in the moment, anticipatory anhedonia and social functioning were measured concurrently using the Emotional Expressivity Scale (EES), Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) and Social Functioning Scale (SFS), respectively. Participants were adults with schizophrenia either with (n = 35) or without (n = 36) a lifetime history of cannabis use.Results: Compared to non-using participants, individuals with a history of cannabis use expressed lesser abilities to express emotion, were less likely to expect pleasure and had poorer social function. Cannabis use moderated the relationship between anticipatory pleasure and prosocial activities.Conclusions: Lifetime cannabis use in schizophrenia may be associated with greater deficits in emotional expressivity, anticipation of pleasure and social function. Cannabis use may disrupt the relationship between anticipatory pleasure and social functioning.

Prospection deficits in schizophrenia: Evidence from clinical and subclinical samples.

Previous research has revealed anticipatory pleasure deficits in people with schizophrenia and people with social anhedonia but who do not have schizophrenia. Prospection is an important component of anticipatory pleasure, but little is known about the role of prospection in social anhedonia. In 2 studies, we investigated prospection and anticipatory pleasure in people with schizophrenia and people with social anhedonia using an affective prospection task and a self-report measure, the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS). In Study 1, we found that people with schizophrenia (n = 31) reported less TEPS anticipatory pleasure, generated less rich and vivid prospections, and reported less preexperiencing of future events than people without schizophrenia (n = 29). In Study 2, we found that people with social anhedonia (n = 34) reported less TEPS anticipatory pleasure, generated less rich prospections, and reported less pleasure and preexperiencing for future events than people without social anhedonia (n = 33). Taken together, prospection impairments and decreased anticipatory pleasure were observed in schizophrenia and social anhedonia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Dynamic associations between opioid use and anhedonia: A longitudinal study in opioid dependence

Anhedonia is a commonly reported symptom among substance-dependent populations that appears to diminish with sustained abstinence. However, previous research has not determined whether anhedonia is dynamically linked to changing patterns of drug use, nor whether it predicts subsequent drug use. We aimed to test whether changes in illicit opioid use would predict changes in anhedonia, and whether increases in anhedonia would predict further opioid use. We conducted a longitudinal, observational study, with a convenience sample of 121 participants with current or past-year Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) opioid dependence recruited from substance use treatment and related services and from pharmacies administering opioid substitution pharmacotherapy. Anhedonia was assessed with the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale and frequency of illicit opioid use was assessed using timeline follow-back interviews. There was a significant within-subject effect (β=-0.015; 95% CI -0.02 to -0.01; p=0.001), indicating that participants' Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale scores typically declined (i.e. anhedonia increased) following a month with above-average opioid use and Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale scores rose (i.e. anhedonia reduced) following a month with below-average opioid use. However, Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale scores did not significantly predict opioid use in the subsequent month (β=-0.04, 95% CI -0.20 to 0.12; p=0.651). Changes in illicit opioid use predict self-reported anhedonia, suggesting a possible causal relationship whereby anhedonia is likely to worsen with frequent drug use and diminish with prolonged abstinence. However, anhedonia does not appear to drive further drug use.

Issue Information

The current issue of PsyCh Journal features four regular contributions, beginning with a cross‐cultural examination of the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) using Chinese and American samples, which also demonstrated the temporal stability in the Chinese sample of the four‐factor model of the TEPS. This is followed by a study of perceptual distortion of the horizontal compared to the vertical dimensions of a particular road sign, presenting an image of a snow tire, with experiments showing a robust illusion effect that appears to result from different magnitudes of assimilation for these two orthogonal dimensions. A third contribution explores individual differences in associative memory noted for older adults, comparing fMRI results for groups who self‐reported the use and non‐use of encoding strategies in a paired‐associative learning test. The fourth original article used eye tracking to investigate the relation between own‐race face scanning and recognition in 6‐ and 9‐month‐old infants, finding that differences in experience between own‐ versus other‐race faces affects some aspects but not others of the relation between recognition and scanning.A Short Communication reports on differences in temperament and character found between patients waiting for obesity surgery and the general population. A final contribution introduces speculation from within China on the link between money and morality, highlighting the moderating role of culture on the effects of money on moral behavior. image

The time course of incentive processing in anticipatory and consummatory anhedonia

BackgroundAnhedonia, the reduced capacity to experience pleasure, has long been regarded as a cardinal symptom in depression and schizophrenia. Recent evidence highlights that anhedonia is not a single construct but consists of an anticipatory component and a consummatory component, which is captured by the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS). The current event-related potential study examined the electrophysiological underpinnings of anticipatory and consummatory aspects of anhedonia as assessed by the TEPS in a non-clinical sample. MethodsEEG was recorded during both anticipatory and consummatory phases of incentive processing in an anticipatory-anhedonia (ANT) group, a consummatory-anhedonia (CON) group, and a control (CNT) group selected from a large sample based on their TEPS scores. ResultsThe ANT relative to the CON group exhibited a reduced cue-P3 during the anticipatory phase, a less positive feedback-related negativity (FRN) and a blunted feedback P3 (fb-P3) during the consummatory phase. Moreover, correlation results revealed a dissociation between anticipatory and consummatory anhedonia, which occurred in an unexpected way such that higher levels of anticipatory anhedonia were associated with reduced fb-P3 amplitudes whereas higher levels of consummatory anhedonia with enhanced cue-P3 and FRN amplitudes. LimitationThe sample size for each group was relatively small. ConclusionsAnticipatory and consummatory anhedonia as measured by the TEPS might be driven by abnormal motivational salience, which was represented by the cue-P3 during the anticipatory phase and the FRN and fb-P3 during the consummatory phase of incentive processing.

S85. THE EFFECT OF LONG-TERM SOCIAL DEPRIVATION ON EFFORT ALLOCATION PATTERN IN PATIENTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

BackgroundMotivational deficit is a common feature of negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia. Patients with schizophrenia are impaired in goal-directed behaviour and effort allocation decision-making to pursue a potential reward. On the other hand, limited work has suggested that schizophrenia patients who experienced long-term social deprivation showed more severe negative symptoms. However, it is not yet fully clear the long-lasting impact of long-term social deprivation on motivation in these patients. The current study aimed to investigate the effect of long-term social deprivation on effort allocation pattern in patients with schizophrenia.MethodsWe recruited 21 patients with schizophrenia institutionalized for more than 15 years and 20 patients with schizophrenia dwelling in the community and 24 healthy controls for this study. We administered the Effort-Expenditure for Rewards Task (EEfRT) to capture reward-based motivational salience, which requires participants make decision to choose a hard or easy task based on reward probability and magnitude. Moreover, a set of self-reported checklists including the Chapman Psychosis Proneness Scales, the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale, the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale and the Emotional Expressivity Scale were also administered to all the participants. For patients with schizophrenia, they also received rating score on the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) and the Scale for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms (SANS).ResultsInstitutionalized patients had exhibited significantly more prominent negative symptoms, especially in alogia subscale, attention subscale, and a trend of statistical significance in anhedonia subscale of SANSS. The two clinical groups did not differ in positive symptoms subscale and general psychopathology symptoms subscale of PANSS. Findings from one-way ANOVA analysis showed that both institutionalized patients and community-dwelling patients with schizophrenia did not differ from healthy controls in experiential pleasure and emotion expression. For performance in the EEFRT, amotivation was only observed in institutionalized patients with schizophrenia, they were significantly less likely to expend effort to pursue a potential reward than healthy controls in both medium (50%) probability and high (80%) probability level. Hence, as the reward probability increased, unlike healthy controls, institutionalized patients could not increase their hard task choices.DiscussionInstitutionalized patients with schizophrenia exhibited significantly more motivational deficits than healthy controls, and such impairment was not observed in community-dwelling patients. However, both institutionalized patients and community-dwelling patients with schizophrenia showed no deficits in self-reported scales measuring pleasure experience and expression. These findings further revealed that long-term social deprivation may be a vital contributor to severe motivation deficits of patients with schizophrenia.

Mediation effect of beliefs about pleasure and emotional experience between social anhedonia and prediction of pleasant events

Few studies have examined whether there is a relationship between social anhedonia and prediction of future events and the role of beliefs about pleasure and emotional experience. In this study, 513 college students were recruited to complete a set of self-reported questionnaires, including the Revised Social Anhedonia Scale (CSAS), the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS), the Belief about Pleasure Scale (BAPS) and the Beck Depression Inventory. Moreover, a checklist of 100 daily life events was also administrated to all participants. Mediation analysis found that social anhedonia had a direct impact on prediction of pleasant events. Emotional experience partly mediated the relationship between social anhedonia and subjective prediction of pleasant events. However, beliefs about pleasure had no significant mediation effect between social anhedonia and prediction of pleasant events, but were shown to influence the subjective prediction of pleasant events completely through emotional experience. These findings suggest that beliefs about pleasure and emotional experience may be considered promising factors for interventions in individuals with anhedonia.

The structural invariance of the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale across time and culture.

The Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) is a self-report instrument that assesses pleasure experience. Initial scale development and validation in the United States yielded a two-factor solution comprising anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. However, a four-factor model that further parsed anticipatory and consummatory pleasure experience into abstract and contextual components was a better model fit in China. In this study, we tested both models using confirmatory factor analysis in an American and a Chinese sample and examined the configural measurement invariance of both models across culture. We also examined the temporal stability of the four-factor model in the Chinese sample. The results indicated that the four-factor model of the TEPS was a better fit than the two-factor model in the Chinese sample. In contrast, both models fit the American sample, which also included many Asian American participants. The four-factor model fit both the Asian American and Chinese samples equally well. Finally, the four-factor model demonstrated good measurement and structural invariance across culture and time, suggesting that this model may be applicable in both cross-cultural and longitudinal studies.

Exploration of mental health of health students: Dental and medical formations promote anhedonia

ObjectivesHealth students usually report to experience stress during their formation. This is due to their exposure to patient's disease or death, to their learning of interpersonal relationships, and to the discovery of health practitioner's responsibility. Anhedonia represents a deficit in experiencing pleasure that is promoted by stressful living conditions. We hypothesized that health formations promote anhedonia. Our objectives have consisted in measuring anhedonia and analyzing its variation and heterogeneity among health students. MethodsThe Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) was used to assess anhedonia and its anticipatory and consummatory dimensions. TEPS corresponds to an 18-item questionnaire, the score of which is based on a 6-point Likert scale. Low score indicates a high anhedonia propensity. Score differences were analyzed by considering gender, curriculum and formation as independent variables. A cluster analysis was used to explore anhedonia heterogeneity among our sample. ResultsWe collected 1231 responses. Our data confirm French TEPS as a reliable tool for anhedonia evaluation in dental and medical students. Statistical analyses reveal a significant effect of gender (male>female), curriculum (clinical>preclinical) and formation (dental>medical) on anhedonia propensity. Cluster analysis highlights four sub-groups of students characterized by increasing anhedonia traits and by different gender, formation and curriculum proportions. ConclusionThis work describes the first analysis of anhedonia manifestation during dental and medical studies in France. The consequences of our findings for the comprehension of dental and medical students’ mental health during their formation are discussed.

Olfactory identification deficit and its relationship with hedonic traits in patients with first-episode schizophrenia and individuals with schizotypy

ObjectiveOlfactory identification impairments have been consistently found in schizophrenia patients. However, few previous studies have investigated this in first-episode patients. There are also inconsistent findings regarding olfactory identification ability in psychometrically-defined schizotypy individuals. In this study, we directly compared the olfactory identification ability of first-episode schizophrenia patients with schizotypy individuals. The relationship between olfactory identification impairments and hedonic traits was also examined. MethodsThirty-five first-episode schizophrenia patients, 40 schizotypy individuals as defined by the Chapman's Anhedonia Scales and 40 demographically matched controls were recruited. The University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test was administered. Hedonic capacity was assessed using the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS). ResultsThe results showed that both the schizophrenia and schizotypy groups showed poorer olfactory identification ability than controls, and the impairment was significantly correlated with reduced pleasure experiences. ConclusionOur findings support olfactory identification impairment as a trait marker for schizophrenia.

The interaction effect of ANKK1/DRD2 TaqIA and HTR2C Cys23Ser on approach motivation in schizophrenic patients and normals

To evaluate the association of the DRD2 gene and DRD2 x HTR2C interaction with hedonic and activational aspects of approach motivation in schizophrenia. Genotypes at polymorphic loci DRD2 rs1800497 and HTR2C rs6318 (Cys23Ser) were identified in a sample that included 174 patients with schizophrenic spectrum disorders and 268 healthy subjects without a family history of psychoses. The participants completed the BIS/BAS and Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS). A MANCOVA with sex and age as covariates revealed the effect of the 'DRD2 x HTR2C x diagnosis' interaction on the BAS scores (p=0.033). The effect was significant for the Fun-Seeking and Drive scales. Among patients, the carriers of the DRD2 TT/CT x HTR2C GG/G genotype showed the highest scores on the both scales, and those with the minor alleles in the two loci had the lowest ones. Differences between these groups were nominally significant for both the Fun-Seeking and Drive, but did not survive the correction for multiple comparisons. Among controls, subjects without minor alleles demonstrated the highest scores on these two scales. They differed significantly from the carriers of the DRD2 TT/CT+HTR2C GG/G genotype on the Fun-Seeking (p=0.008). No effects of DRD2 and HTR2C on TEPS scores were found. In general, the results of the study can be interpreted in favor of the hypothesis about the role of the HTR2C and DRD2 genes interaction in the variability of the activational aspects of approach motivation in schizophrenia and healthy subjects. However, the lack of differences survived correction for multiple comparisons makes it difficult to interpret the revealed effects.

Psychometric evaluation of the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) in a German sample

Anhedonia, or the inability to experience pleasure, is commonly observed in schizophrenia. It has been suggested that patients with schizophrenia are unable to predict future pleasurable events, but show intact experience of in-the-moment pleasure. Therefore, the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS), a self-report measure allowing the assessment of anticipatory and consummatory pleasure, has been developed. To validate the German version of the TEPS, we recruited 59 healthy control participants and 51 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who completed the TEPS as well as a battery of psychometric tests to assess psychopathology, in particular self-rated anhedonia and clinician-rated apathy as well as overall measures of negative symptoms. We found acceptable to good internal consistency and a factor structure comparable to the original version. Scores of the TEPS were related to measures of anhedonia and apathy, but not with other measures of psychopathology. The present results suggest that the German version of the TEPS shows adequate reliability and validity to assess the construct of anhedonia. However, differential aspects of anticipatory and consummatory pleasure should be further investigated in clinical samples.

Pleasure Experience and Emotion Expression in Patients with Schizophrenia.

BackgroundImpairments in emotional experience and expression have been observed in patients with schizophrenia. However, most previous studies have been limited to either emotional experience (especially anhedonia) or expression. Few studies have examined both the experience and expression of emotion in schizophrenia patients at the same time.AimsThe present study aimed to examine pleasure experience and emotion expression in patients with schizophrenia. In particular, we specifically examined the relationship between emotion impairments (both pleasure experience and expression) and negative symptoms.MethodsOne hundred and fifty patients completed the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale and Emotional Expressivity Scale.ResultsSchizophrenia patients exhibited deficits in experiencing pleasure, but showed intact reported emotion expression. Patients with prominent negative symptoms showed reduced anticipatory pleasure, especially in abstract anticipatory pleasure.ConclusionThe present findings suggest that patients with schizophrenia have deficits in pleasure experience, while their abilities to express emotion appear intact. Such deficits are more severe in patients with prominent negative symptoms.

Attenuated positive psychotic symptoms and the experience of anhedonia.

Deficits in anticipatory pleasure have been consistently shown among chronic, first-episode, and clinical high risk for psychosis populations, but much less attention has been given to non-clinical individuals experiencing attenuated positive psychotic symptoms (APPS). Young adults (N = 1839) were administered the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale, which measures anticipatory and consummatory pleasure, and the Prodromal Questionnaire, which measures APPS. Analyses examined (1) total APPS endorsed and (2) comparisons of groups experiencing APPS that were endorsed as distressing (distressing APPS = D-APPS; experiencing more D-APPS = high-D-APPS, a potentially more clinically meaningful group; experiencing fewer D-APPS = low-D-APPS). Results indicated that anticipatory, but not consummatory, pleasure deficits were associated with elevated APPS. Additionally, the high-D-APPS group exhibited significantly less anticipatory pleasure compared with the low-D-APPS group, but did not differ in consummatory pleasure. Our results mirror findings in schizophrenia samples and suggest that anticipatory pleasure deficits occur along the entire continuum of psychotic experiences.

AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF REWARD AND HABIT IN OCD: LOOKING FOR SOCIODEMOGRAPHIC AND CLINICAL CORRELATES

Introduction Emerging neurobiological evidence suggests that the boundaries between compulsive symptoms in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and both addictive and habitual behaviors may not be impervious as previously though. For instance, attenuated activity in the nucleus accumbens during reward anticipation in OCD patients compared with healthy controls has been reported. 1 This effect was most pronounced in patients with contamination fears. 1 There is also evidence of an increased tendency to form both avoidance and “rewarding” habits in OCD, leading to the hypothesis that OCD compulsions are in fact overlearned habits. 2 Nevertheless, we are not aware of any phenomenological study attempting to investigate to contribution of reward and/or habit processes to compulsive behaviors in OCD and whether they are associated to any specific sociodemographic or clinical correlates. Methods To help filling this gap, 73 OCD patients attending a university-based clinic had their most clinically significant compulsive behaviors assessed with (1) the Temporal Impulsive Compulsive Scale (TICS), a self-report instrument that measures how frequently (from 0=never to 4=always) positive (rewarding) and negative affective states are experienced before, in anticipation, during, and after the OCD patients’ compulsive behavior; and (2) the Self-Report Habit Index (SRHI) a self-report instrument that assesses perceptions of habit strength (including prior behavior, automaticity, and identity expression). Patients were also assessed with a (3) a modified version of the Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) to measure severity of compulsive symptoms (including avoidance), and (4) the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R), to provide severity of symptoms across obsessions, washing, checking, ordering, neutralization and hoarding dimensions. Additional instruments were selected on the basis of whether they were thought to measure other aspects of reward and/or punishment and fear including: (5) the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS); (6) the Behavioral Inhibition/Activation Scales (BIS/BAS); (7) the Urgency, Premeditation, Perseverance, Sensation seeking, and Positive Urgency scale (UPPS-p); (8) the Obsessive Beliefs Questionnaire (OBQ-44); and (9) the Intolerance of Uncertainty Scale (IUS-12). Results Reward in anticipation and after the performance of OCD compulsive behaviors in the TICS correlated positively with anticipatory (r=0.25; p=0.03) and consummatory (r=0.28; p=0.02) pleasure in the TEPS, respectively. In terms of symptom content, anticipated reward (i.e., predicted positive affect prior to initiating compulsive behavior as measured on the TICS) correlated positively with severity of washing symptoms (r=0.24; p=0.04) and negatively with checking (r=-.024; p=0.04) and neutralization symptoms (r=0.25; p=0.03). In contrast, habit strength correlated positively with checking (r=0.27; p=0.02), hoarding (r=0.36; p=0.01), and ordering (r=0.29; p=0.13) and negatively with BIS scores (r=-0.26; p=0.03). Conclusions Our preliminary findings suggest that the ability to experience reward in anticipation and after the performance of OCD compulsions may be partially depend on whether patients are able to experience anticipatory and consummatory pleasure in domains other than those related to OCD compulsions. We were also able to confirm the finding that OCD patients with washing symptoms experience greater reward in anticipation of their OCD compulsions. In contrast, the greater the severity of checking, hoarding and ordering, the more habitual features the OCD compulsions tend to display.

Investigating consummatory and anticipatory pleasure across motivation deficits in schizophrenia and healthy controls

Anhedonia has traditionally been considered a characteristic feature of schizophrenia, but the true nature of this deficit remains elusive. This study sought to investigate consummatory and anticipatory pleasure as it relates to motivation deficits. Eighty-four outpatients with schizophrenia and 81 healthy controls were administered the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS), as well as a battery of clinical and cognitive assessments. Multivariate analyses of variance were used to examine the experience of pleasure as a function of diagnosis, and across levels of motivation deficits (i.e. low vs. moderate. vs. high) in schizophrenia. Hierarchical regression analyses were also conducted to evaluate the predictive value of amotivation in relation to the TEPS. There were no significant differences between schizophrenia and healthy control groups for either consummatory or anticipatory pleasure. Within the schizophrenia patients, only those with high levels of amotivation were significantly impaired in consummatory and anticipatory pleasure compared to low and moderate groups, and compared to healthy controls. Further, our results revealed that amotivation significantly predicts both consummatory and anticipatory pleasure, with no independent contribution of group. Utilizing study samples with a wide range of motivation deficits and incorporating objective paradigms may provide a more comprehensive understanding of hedonic deficits.

White matter microstructural abnormalities and their association with anticipatory anhedonia in depression

Anhedonia is associated with dysfunction of the neural circuitry of reward in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD). However, its neurobiological basis is not fully understood. The present study examined the association between anhedonia and white matter (WM) characteristics in patients with first-episode MDD. We recruited 30 patients with first-episode drug-naive MDD and 28 healthy controls (HC) to undergo diffusion weighted imaging. We examined specifically the correlation between WM characteristics and anhedonia measured with the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) in MDD patients. Using Track-Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS), we found that MDD patients exhibited reduced fractional anisotropy (FA) in the left cingulum and the forceps minor. These patients also exhibited increased radial diffusivity (RD) in several major tracts including the bilateral anterior thalamic radiation, the corticospinal tract, the superior longitudinal fasciculus and the uncinate fasciculus in the left hemisphere. Correlational analysis showed that increased RD was significantly correlated with anticipatory anhedonia in the MDD group, while reduced mean FA was correlated with consummatory anhedonia in HC. These preliminary findings suggest that left-sided WM tracts abnormalities may contribute to the development of anhedonia in MDD patients.

A latent profile analysis of schizotypal dimensions: Associations with psychopathology and personality

The main goal of the present study was to explore the latent structure of schizotypal traits in non-clinical young adults, and compare the latent profiles in clinical and personality characteristics: mental distress, psychosis-proneness, hypomanic experiences, and anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. A large sample of college students (N =1002; mean age =21.11 years; SD =3.92) were administered the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire-Brief Revised, the Mood Disorder Questionnaire, the short version of the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences, the General Health Questionnaire-12, and the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale. Using latent profile analysis, four latent classes (LC) were identified: “low schizotypy” (62.4%), “average schizotypy” (17.6%), “interpersonal schizotypy” (17.1%), and “high schizotypy” (2.9%). The “high schizotypy” class scored higher on most psychometric indicators of psychopathology and personality (i.e., mental distress, schizotypy, hypomanic experiences, and anticipatory and consummatory pleasure) relative to other three latent classes. The other three schizotypal latent profiles also varied in terms of these psychopathology and personality factors. The identification of homogeneous subgroups of individuals potentially at-risk for psychosis based on schizotypal latent profiles may improve early identification and prevention efforts aimed at reducing the burden associated with psychotic-spectrum disorders and mental health problems.

Preliminary evidence that negative symptom severity relates to multilocus genetic profile for dopamine signaling capacity and D2 receptor binding in healthy controls and in schizophrenia

Deficits in central, subcortical dopamine (DA) signaling may underlie negative symptom severity, particularly anhedonia, in healthy individuals and in schizophrenia. To investigate these relationships, we assessed negative symptoms with the Schedule for the Assessment of Negative Symptoms and the Brief Negative Symptom Scale (BNSS) and self-reported anhedonia with the Scales for Physical and Social Anhedonia (SPSA), Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale, and Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale in 36 healthy controls (HC), 27 siblings (SIB) of individuals with schizophrenia, and 66 individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder (SCZ). A subset of participants (N = 124) were genotyped for DA-related polymorphisms in genes for DRD4, DRD2/ANKK1, DAT1, and COMT, which were used to construct biologically-informed multi-locus genetic profile (MGP) scores reflective of subcortical dopaminergic signaling. DA receptor type 2 (D2R) binding was assessed among a second subset of participants (N = 23) using PET scans with the D2R-selective, non-displaceable radioligand (N-[11C]methyl)benperidol. Higher MGP scores, reflecting elevated subcortical dopaminergic signaling capacity, were associated with less negative symptom severity, as measured by the BNSS, across all participants. In addition, higher striatal D2R binding was associated with less physical and social anhedonia, as measured by the SPSA, across HC, SIB, and SCZ. The current preliminary findings support the hypothesis that subcortical DA function may contribute to negative symptom severity and self-reported anhedonia, independent of diagnostic status.

Validation of the Chinese version of the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale.

Social anhedonia, the reduced capacity for social and interpersonal pleasure, often accompanies several forms of psychopathology. The goal of the present study was to validate the Chinese translation of the Anticipatory and Consummatory Interpersonal Pleasure Scale (ACIPS), a promising new tool for the assessment of individual differences in social pleasure. The Chinese versions of the ACIPS, the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS), and the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ) were administered to 389 nonclinical adults. Factor analysis revealed that a four-factor structure accounted for nearly 53% of the variance, and the factors were consistent with those identified from factor analyses of the ACIPS in Western (U.S.) samples. The ACIPS measure showed high internal consistency as well. Correlational analysis revealed evidence of convergent validity. Individuals who scored high on the ACIPS were more likely to score high on measures of anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. Moreover, ACIPS total scores were inversely associated with scores on the No Close Friends subscale and the Constricted Affect subscale of the Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire (SPQ). Taken together, the findings suggest that the Chinese translation of the ACIPS is a reliable, valid measure that can be used to assess individual differences in the capacity to experience social and interpersonal pleasure in Chinese individuals.