A Scale for the Assessment of Hedonic Tone the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale

Overview

Journal Br J Psychiatry

Publisher Cambridge University Press

Specialty Psychiatry

Date 1995 Jul 1

PMID 7551619

Citations 643

Authors

R P SNAITH

M Hamilton

S Morley

A Humayan

D Hargreaves

P Trigwell

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Hedonic tone and its absence, anhedonia, are important in psychopathological research, but instruments for their assessment are lengthy and probably culturally biased.

Method: A new scale was constructed from the responses of a large sample of the general population to a request to list six situations which afforded pleasure. The most frequent items were reviewed and those likely to be affected by cultural setting, age, or sex were removed. A pilot study led to an abbreviated scale of 14 items, covering four domains of pleasure response. This questionnaire was subjected to psychometric evaluation in new samples from the general population and psychiatric patients.

Results: The scale was found to have a score range that would distinguish a 'normal' from an 'abnormal' response. Validity and reliability were found to be satisfactory.

Conclusions: The new scale, the Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale (SHAPS), is an instrument which may be recommended for psychopathological research.

Citing Articles

Establishing content validity of the Dimensional Anhedonia Rating Scale.

Bean S, Dhanda R, Graham C, Hoffman D, Rodriguez-Lee M, Ionescu A J Patient Rep Outcomes. 2025; 9(1):31.

PMID: 40069518 PMC: 11896914. DOI: 10.1186/s41687-025-00860-x.

The Impact of Anhedonia on the Disease Burden of Major Depressive Disorder in the Asia-Pacific Region: A Cross-Sectional Real-World Study.

Herr K, Berk M, Huang W, Kato T, Lee J, Ng C Neuropsychopharmacol Rep. 2025; 45(1):e70007.

PMID: 40011065 PMC: 11864854. DOI: 10.1002/npr2.70007.

Attenuation processes in positive social emotion upregulation: Disentangling functional role of ventrolateral prefrontal cortex.

Bezmaternykh D, Melnikov M, Petrovskiy E, Mazhirina K, Savelov A, Shtark M iScience. 2025; 28(2):111909.

PMID: 39995856 PMC: 11849593. DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.111909.

Understanding High-Functioning Depression in Adults.

Joseph J, Tural U, Joseph N, Mendoza T, Patel E, Reifer R Cureus. 2025; 17(2):e78891.

PMID: 39963293 PMC: 11831407. DOI: 10.7759/cureus.78891.

Severity of anhedonia is associated with hyper-synchronization of the salience-default mode network in non-clinical individuals: a resting state EEG connectivity study.

Imperatori C, Allegrini G, Lo Presti A, Carbone G, Adenzato M, Farina B J Neural Transm (Vienna). 2025; .

PMID: 39954079 DOI: 10.1007/s00702-025-02894-3.