ArticleEuropean child & adolescent psychiatry2020
Understanding anhedonia: a qualitative study exploring loss of interest and pleasure in adolescent depression.
Article in European child & adolescent psychiatry, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 63 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
63 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 123 citations in OpenAlex.
- Resting-state network alterations in depression: a comprehensive meta-analysis of functional connectivity.Psychological medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Disease awareness and experience of adolescent depression patients: a meta-synthesis of qualitative studies.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- A qualitative study exploring depressed participants' experiences of receiving Augmented Depression Therapy (ADepT).BMJ open · 2025Trial
- Effect of Cariprazine on Anhedonia in Patients with Bipolar I Depression: Post Hoc Analysis of Three Randomized Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trials.Advances in therapy · 2025Trial
- The experience of cognitive behavioural therapy in depressed adolescents who are fatigued.Psychology and psychotherapy · 2022Trial
- Non-Suicidal Self-Injury in Adolescents With Major Depressive Disorder: The Role of Beta-Endorphin, Psychological Pain, and Anhedonia.Alpha psychiatry · 2026Article
- Assessing anhedonia in Chinese healthy and depressed adolescents: reliability, validity, and clinical utility of the anhedonia scale for adolescent.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Illuminating a joyless life: qualitative, transdiagnostic exploration of anhedonia.BJPsych open · 2026Article
- Arousal shapes motivation: an integrative framework for understanding motivational deficits.Translational psychiatry · 2026Review
- "Helpful in Thinking Through the Question": Redesigning the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 for Depression Assessment to Enhance Patient Engagement and Understanding.JMIR human factors · 2026Article
- An Item-Level Analysis of Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) Among Adolescents in Primary Care.Clinical practice in pediatric psychology · 2026Article
- Anhedonia and its sub-component processes predict clinically significant symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and loneliness in young people.The British journal of clinical psychology · 2026Article
- Development and validation evaluation of the depressive disorders self-management scale for adolescents.BMC psychology · 2026Article
- Spiritual emptiness and depression among university students: the roles of perceived support and age.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Latent profiles of pre-competition psychological states in young Chinese judo athletes: associations with depression and mental toughness.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- The Experience of Goals and Rewards in Young People Who Self-Harm: A Qualitative Exploration.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Children's experiences of living with their mental ill-health - a scoping review.International journal of qualitative studies on health and well-being · 2025Article
- Temporal Predictions from Anhedonia To Anxiety in Adolescents with Major Depressive Disorder.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2025Article
- Invisible Links: Associations Between Micronutrient Deficiencies and Postpartum Depression-A Systematic Review.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Parents' Perceptions of What Health Means for Adolescents with Depression-A Qualitative Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
3 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Anhedonia (or loss of interest and pleasure) is a core symptom of depression and may predict poor treatment outcome. However, little is known about the subjective experience of anhedonia, and it is rarely targeted in psychological treatment for depression. The aim of this study is to examine how young people experience anhedonia in the context of depression. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 34 adolescents with a primary diagnosis of depression (N = 12) or elevated depressive symptoms (N = 22). Thematic analysis was used to identify important aspects of adolescents' experiences. Four main themes were identified: (1) experiencing a loss of joy and a flattening of emotion; (2) struggling with motivation and active engagement; (3) losing a sense of connection and belonging; and (4) questioning sense of self, purpose, and the bigger picture. The results challenge the framing of anhedonia as simply the loss of interest and pleasure. Adolescents reported a range of experiences that mapped closely onto the cluster of negative symptoms associated with schizophrenia and were similar to the sense of 'apathy' characteristic in Parkinson's disease. This highlights the potential benefit of taking a trans-diagnostic approach to understanding and treating reward deficits associated with mental health problems.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.