ANHEDONIA AND EMOTIONAL REGULATION

Overview & Synopsis

Anhedonia is the loss of subjective ability to experience pleasure. It is considered a key symptom of major depressive episode (DSM-IV-TR). Studies have shown the relationship between alexithymia, anhedonia and depression (Prince & al., 1993). Alexithymia is usually defined as difficulty identifying and verbalizing emotions. The objective of our work is to propose a model of dynamic understanding of cognitive-emotional functioning of subjects with a score of anhedonia as assessed by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale (HAD; Lepine & al., 1985). We hypothesize that levels of emotional awareness (LEAS; Lane & Schwartz, 1991) and social sharing of emotions (PSE; Rime, 2005), emotional components of the concept of alexithymia, are vulnerability factors of anhedonia depressive symptom. We also assessed the dimensions of emotional intensity and expressivity (AIM Larsen, 1984; SEA; Kring & al., 1994) among subjects in our sample of 60 patients (7 men and 53 women, mean age = 43,21) consulting general medicine.