On “risk” and reward: Investigating state anhedonia in psychometrically defined schizotypy and schizophrenia.

Abstract

Anhedonia, defined as dysfunction in the experience of pleasant emotions, is a hallmark symptom of the schizophrenia spectrum. Of interest, it is well documented that patients with schizophrenia, at least as a group, do not show reductions in their state experience of pleasant stimuli. However, there is emerging evidence to suggest that individuals with schizotypy--defined as the personality organization reflecting the latent vulnerability for schizophrenia--do show these state deficits. This is paradoxical in that schizophrenia reflects a more pathological state in virtually every conceivable domain as compared with schizotypy. The present study examined self-reported affective reactions to neutral-, bad-, and good-valenced stimuli in individuals with psychometrically defined schizotypy and schizophrenia. Two separate control groups were also included, comprising psychometrically defined controls and stable outpatients with affective disorders. With no exceptions, the schizotypy group reported significantly less pleasant affect for each of the three conditions than each of the other groups. Conversely, the schizophrenia group did not statistically differ from the control groups for any of the conditions. Within both the schizotypy and schizophrenia groups, severity of negative symptoms/traits was associated with less pleasant report. We found that individuals with prominent negative symptoms and traits from the schizophrenia and schizotypy groups resembled each other in terms of state anhedonia. The present findings did not appear to reflect comorbid depression or anxiety. Our discussion centers on this apparent paradox in the schizophrenia spectrum--that individuals with schizotypy exhibit state anhedonia, whereas patients with schizophrenia do not.

Affecting coping: Does neurocognition predict approach and avoidant coping strategies within schizophrenia spectrum disorders?

“…Table 2 presents the descriptive statistics for group differences in coping strategies, affective traits, and neurocognitive performance. As previously reported (Cohen et al, 2012), significant group differences were found in trait negative affect, with the schizotypy group reporting the highest negative affect followed by patients, and then controls. The schizophrenia and the schizotypy group reported significantly lower trait positive affect than controls.…”

“…All patients were clinically stable at the time of testing and were receiving pharmacotherapy under the supervision of a multidisciplinary team. All patients were prescribed psychotropic medications at the time of testing, and there was considerable variability in type, dosage, and medium (i.e., depot versus oral) across patients (for additional information regarding sample, see Cohen et al, 2012).…”

Additional support for the cognitive model of schizophrenia: evidence of elevated defeatist beliefs in schizotypy

“…Following research and theoretical work suggesting that schizotypy is a categorical as opposed to dimensional construct [21,22], we identified schizotypy (z-score > 1.65 above the mean on the positive, negative, or disorganized SPQ subscales) and "control" or non-schizotypy groups (z-score < mean on overall SPQ) using gender and ethnicity-derived means from those that provided valid responses on the SPQ. Consistent with previous studies and due to the relatively high functioning of college students [28][29][30], we used a relatively conservative approach of including only the top 5% of scorers in the schizotypy group. Eligibility criteria also included being between 18 and 30 years old (n = 9 excluded; those over 30 were excluded because they are outside of the highest risk period for schizophrenia onset [31,32]), being fluent in English (n = 1 excluded), reporting not being under the influence of substances during testing (n = 1 excluded), and having no self-reported diagnosis of a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder (n = 1 excluded).…”

“…The SPQ contains 74 self-report items and has demonstrated high internal reliability, test-retest reliability, and convergent and discriminant validity [24]. We followed prior methods [7,29], to assess for positive schizotypy traits (i.e., ideas of references, odd beliefs or magical thinking, suspiciousness, and unusual perceptual experiences scores) disorganized schizotypy traits (i.e., odd speech and odd or eccentric behavior scores), and negative schizotypy traits (i.e., no close friends and constricted affect scores). To address concerns that the original SPQ dichotomous response scale may lack sensitivity to degrees of symptom severity [33], a modified 5-point response scale ranging from 1 (Strongly Disagree) to 5 (Strongly Agree) was utilized.…”

Objective and Subjective Olfaction Across the Schizophrenia Spectrum

“…Based on scores at the sex and ethnicity-derived 95th percentile or above on the positive, negative, or disorganized subscales, a schizotypy group was identified and recruited (n = 79). Additionally, a healthy control group (n = 34) was identified that had SPQ-B scores lower than the mean for each of the subscales (see Cohen, Callaway, Najolia, Larsen, & Strauss, 2011, for more details regarding recruitment). Selected participants were contacted via e-mail or phone by research assistants and asked to undergo an in-person testing session in our laboratory.…”