Anticipatory vs. consummatory pleasure: What is the nature of hedonic deficits in schizophrenia?

Recent research has distinguished between anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. In the current study, we examined the psychometric properties of the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) to determine whether reliability and validity findings reported in previous research replicate in an additional sample of schizophrenia patients. Participants included 86 individuals with schizophrenia and 59 demographically matched healthy controls. Inconsistent with previous research, patients differed from controls in their reports of consummatory (TEPS-CON), but not anticipatory (TEPS-ANT) pleasure. We also failed to replicate some important correlational findings reported in previous research indicating relationships between the TEPS-ANT subscale and external validators. Analyses of the stability of the TEPS subscales were conducted in a sub-group of patients (n = 19), and indicated excellent stability for the TEPS-CON (ICC (intraclass correlation coefficient) = 0.93), but somewhat lower stability for the TEPS-ANT subscale (ICC = 0.74). These findings suggest that additional studies are needed using the TEPS, as well as other measures, to determine the nature of anhedonia in individuals with schizophrenia.