Physical Anhedonia, Perceptual Aberration, and Psychosis Proneness

Two groups of hypothetically psychosis-prone subjects were chosen from among college students who scored deviantly high on scales of Physical Anhedonia (n = 50) or Perceptual Aberration (n = 65). Scores on these two scales had a small negative correlation, indicating that the scales identify different sets of deviant subjects. These experimental subjects and a control group (n = 66) were interviewed using a modification of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia--Lifetime Version. A second interview covered social and academic adjustment. Psychotic and psychotic-like symptoms (attenuated forms of psychotic experiences) were scored on a recently devised scale of deviancy. The perceptual aberration subjects exceeded the control subjects on each of several psychotic-like experiences (auditory and visual experiences, thought transmission, passivity experiences, aberrant beliefs), as well as on depression, hypomania, social withdrawal, problems of concentration, deviances in communication and speech, and a composite score for schizotypal features. Anhedonics did not differ from controls on psychotic-like experiences but were more socially withdrawn, had less heterosexual interest and activity, and scored higher on the composite score of schizotypal features. The findings support the hypothesis that the scales identify persons who are at risk for psychosis but probably for different psychoses.