Development and Validation of the Specific Loss of Interest and Pleasure Scale (SLIPS)

Background: Anhedonia, or loss of pleasure and/or interest in people or things, is a key component of many forms of psychopathology. Extant anhedonia measures only assess current state or longstanding trait anhedonia, which risks discounting recent changes. Thus, we created the Specific Loss of Interest and Pleasure Scale (SLIPS), to assess recent changes in anhedonia.

Methods: Four studies assessed the reliability and validity of the SLIPS through factor and internal consistency analyses, convergent and divergent validity analyses, and incremental validity analyses in individuals reporting non-clinical and clinical levels of psychopathology.

Results: The SLIPS was internally consistent, converged with existing state measures of anhedonia and depression, and diverged from general measures of affect and trait anticipatory and consummatory pleasure. Furthermore, the SLIPS predicted recent changes in anhedonia independent of existing measures. Moreover, in respondents reporting moderate or severe symptoms of depression, only the SLIPS was associated with recent changes in anhedonia.

Limitations: Prospective limitations included a resulting one factor solution and the potential that the method of scaling influenced results. However, these limitations were offset by empirical verification and the unique strength of the scaling of the SLIPS.

Conclusions: The SLIPS is the first validated measure that allows for the assessment of recent changes in anhedonia in non-clinical and clinical samples. Results suggest that the SLIPS offers unique clinical utility by discriminating changes in anhedonia within at-risk and clinically depressed groups.