Anhedonia: definition
"Anhedonia" is defined as the total or partial inability to experience satisfaction, fulfillment or interest, for the usual pleasant activities, such as food, sex and interpersonal relationships. "Anedonia" is synonymous even with disinterest in sleeping, relaxing and living: it is therefore clear that anhedonia reflects mental disorders, depression and chronic psychosis in general.
Origin of the term "anhedonia"
The term anedonia was coined towards the end of the twentieth century by Ribot, a French psychologist who defined anhedonia as the pathological inability to perceive pleasure in all its forms .
Again, the word anhedonia is composed of a root and a Greek ending: pleasure (in Greek, hēdonē ) is connoted negatively by the prefix an .
Pleasure is no longer " the beginning and end of a happy life " ( Letter to Meneceo, Epicurus): in Anedonia there is no life and there is no pleasure.
Anhedonia and related diseases
Anhedonia may be a lighted spy of schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, depression and mood disorders in general. It is estimated that 40% of patients with Parkinson's disease also manifest anhedonia simultaneously.
As for the anhedonia-schizophrenia link, the thought of psychologists and psychiatrists is not univocal: some consider anedonia as a symptom of schizophrenia, a sort of marker of the disease, others, instead, consider the anedonic pathology as a trait that predisposes the subject to the manifestation of schizophrenic psychosis.
- Among the supporters of the first theory, we recall Dr. Carpenter and Dr. Kirkpatrick, according to whom anhedonia was " a primary and lasting symptom ", an indispensable element for diagnosing schizophrenia in patients; again, Dr. Crow, an Anglo-Saxon psychiatrist, considered anhedonia as the main symptom of schizophrenia.
- In opposition to this theory, other scholars reject the concept that anhedonia represents the marker of schizophrenia: the anedonic disorder is compared to a genetically transmitted disease, an innate character that lays the foundation for the onset of schizophrenic manifestation.
Anhedonia plays a role of considerable importance also in depression: in the initial depressive stages the subject complains of an inability to derive satisfaction from the small daily activities that, as a rule, are considered pleasant.
What differentiates anhedonia in the schizophrenic context from that in the depressive field, is that in the latter case the difficulty of experiencing pleasure arises at a certain moment, while in schizophrenia anhedonia is stable over time and does not arise in a particular stage of the disease.
Care
Considering anhedonia a mental disorder, the therapies are almost identical to those used for the treatment of depression and psychological disorders: psychiatric sessions, dialogue and, when necessary, pharmacological support, could diminish the negativity derived from the disorder anhedonic.
Anhedonia is not a pathology in its own right, but accompanies many personality disorders, worsening them: the specialist must be able to understand the real reason that creates anhedonia in the patient and which pathology hides to be able to treat it better.
Summary
Disorder | anhedonia |
Description | Total or partial inability to prove satisfaction, fulfillment or interest in the usual pleasant activities such as food, sex and interpersonal relationships |
Classification of anhedonia |
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Anedonia according to Ribot | Anhedonia: pathological inability to perceive pleasure in all its forms |
| Etymology of the term anhedonia | "Anedonia" is a word composed of a root and a suffix of Greek derivation: pleasure ( hēdonē ) is connoted negatively by the prefix an . |
Anhedonia related diseases | Schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, depression and mood disorders in general |
Anhedonia and schizophrenia |
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Treatments to treat anhedonia | The therapies are almost the same as those used to treat depression and psychological disorders |
