Parasuicide, anhedonia, and depression.

Previous research has shown that anhedonia characterizes suicide attempters. The present study aimed to replicate this finding using the level of depression as a control. Seventy-three depressed parasuicides, 30 nondepressed parasuicides, and 104 matched controls were assessed on the Revised Physical Anhedonia Scale (PAS). Consistent with previous studies, depressed parasuicides were significantly more anhedonic than controls, but nondepressed parasuicides were not significantly more anhedonic than controls. Moreover, multiple linear regression analysis showed that the PAS score explained a negligible part of the variance in the distinction between parasuicides and controls. Anhedonia in parasuicides constitutes a depressive feature and not a temperamental trait.

[Validation of the French version of a pleasure scale for children (The Pleasure Scale for Children, PSC, Kazdin, 1989) in 214 hospitalized children in pediatrics]. / Etude de validation de la version française de l'échelle de plaisir pour infants (EPE) de Kazdin (the pleasure scale for children, PSC, Kazdin, 1989) chez 214 enfants hospitalisés en pédiatrie.

UNLABELLED: The aim of this study was to determine the metrological parameters of a french version of the Pleasure Scale for Children (PSC): 214 (121 males and 93 females) with a mean age of 8.69 years (sd: 1.95) ranging from 6 years to 12 years were included in the study. The children were inpatients presenting various somatic disorders. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: First a principal component analysis was done on the 39 items of the correlation matrix. Several guidelines were used to limit the number of factors (Kaiser criteria, Cattell scree test, Horn parallel analysis). Secondly the construct validity was studied using the alpha Cronbach coefficient and by calculing the Pearson correlation coefficient between each item and the total score. Thirdly the concurrent validity was determinated using two items of the Children Depression Rating Scale--Revised (CDRS-R) measuring pleasure (social withdrawal and enjoyment capacity). Fourthly the discriminant validity of the PSC was studied by comparing non depressive children (score lower than 30 to the CDRS-R) and depressive children (score higher than 30 to the CDRS-R). RESULTS: The principal component analysis showed a one factor solution with 33 items among the 39 having a higher than 0.3 saturation. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was 0.84. All the items correlated with the total score. The mean value was 0.37. The correlations between the total score of the scale and the CDRS-R enjoyment capacity and social withdrawal items were respectively -0.37 (p < 0.01) and -0.38 (p < 0.01). PSC score were significantly lower in depressive children (m = 86.96; sd = 8.33) than in non depressive children (m = 94.67; sd = 10) (t = 5.32; df = 212; p < 0.001).

[Evaluation of the subjective component of emotions in normal subjects: relation between anhedonia and the capacity to perceive unpleasant feelings in a population of 221 normal subjects]. / Evaluation de la composante subjective des émotions chez le sujet sain: rapport entre l'anhédonie et la capacité à éprouver du déplaisir dans une population de 221 sujets sains.

This work presents a study of 221 healthy subjects among whom we have assessed the capacity to feel pleasure or displeasure through two rating scales, the FCPCS-PP and the HDCS-PD. We have observed a significant correlation between the scores, which shows that the more pleasure the subject feels, the more displeasure he feels. These results seem to confirm the existence of an overall dimension of emotional experience.