Anhedonia is the inability to experience physical or social pleasure. It may either represent a personality trait predisposing to depression and psychosis, or a neuropsychiatric symptom of endogenomorphic depression and schizophrenia. Its physical component is hypothesised to be due to dysfunction of a dopaminergic frontotemporalsubcortical circuit.

The aim of the present study is to investigate presence and severity of anhedonia in patients with depression who attended a Community Mental Health Center (CMHC) in Thessaloniki (Greece). Seventy-six (76) patients were screened with Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Total BDI score as well as the questions of BDI which refer to anhedonia were studied.

The vast majority of the patients are women (88%), the mean age is 34.11±8.75 years, and the great percentage is married (43.4%), high educated (55.3%), with Personality Disorder on Axis-II (80%). The mean BDI score is 27.42±6.18, and the BDI score for anhedonia is 1.59±0.83. It is found that age and anhedonia are inversely related (r=-229, p<0.05). Furthermore, sex, educational level, comorbidity on Axis-I and diagnosis on Axis-II does not seem to affect anhedonia score in depression.

Findings from this study suggest that anhedonia is an endogenous characteristic of depression, although it seems to be an inversely ratio between age and anhedonia. Future studies with larger groups of depressed patients are warranted to further investigate anhedonia as component of depression.