Anhedonia in Parkinson's Disease

Anhedonia (that is the inability to take pleasure in any physical or social experience) has never been assessed in Parkinson's Disease (PD); its evaluation might integrate the usual neuropsychological profile of the disease and allow anhedonia itself to be better defined (either component of a mood disorder or deriving from orbito-frontal dysfunction). We examined a series of 17 nondemented parkinsonian patients and IS age-, sexand education-matched controls for the presence of affective and cognitive disturbances using a psychometric battery that included frontal tests and the Chapman's Scales for physical and social anhedonia (1). Patients with PD had significantly higher anhedonia scores and they also obtained abnormal depression and frontal-executive tasks scores; correlation analysis was then performed and showed no significant association between either the Geriatric Depression Scale or the Executive Interview on one side and Chapman's Scales on the other. The relationship between anhedonia, mood level and cognitive (mainly disexecutive) aspects will be discussed. Further neuropsychological data are now being processed concerning a group of demented parkinsonian patients. (1) Chapman L et al: Scales for physical and social anhedonia. J Abnorm Psychol 85:374,1976.