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. Copyright (C) 2000 by W.B. Saunders Company.