Changes in anhedonia over the course of eating disorder treatment

Anhedonia, a transdiagnostic symptom referring to the loss of ability to experience pleasure, is heightened across eating disorder (ED) diagnoses. This study aimed to assess whether anhedonia changes during ED treatment and explore how changes in anhedonia relate to treatment outcome.

Adults and adolescents in a partial hospitalization program for EDs (N = 499) completed the Eating Disorders Examination Questionnaire (EDE-Q) and the anhedonia subscale of the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) at admission and discharge.

Anhedonia scores significantly decreased from admission to discharge. Anhedonia at admission was also significantly different across ED diagnostic groups. To examine how study variables related to discharge EDE-Q scores, a hierarchical linear regression was conducted with demographic, diagnostic, and medication variables in the first step, anhedonia and EDE-Q scores at admission added to the second step, and anhedonia at discharge added to the final step. Greater anhedonia at discharge was related to higher EDE-Q scores at discharge.

Our findings suggest that anhedonia changes significantly over the course of intensive treatment and changes in anhedonia relate to ED symptoms at discharge. Future research is needed to determine whether specifically targeting anhedonia in ED treatment may influence treatment outcomes.

The findings from this study suggest that anhedonia may decrease during eating disorder (ED) treatment, and greater anhedonia may relate to elevated ED symptoms. These results provide support for the continued study of anhedonia in ED samples and indicate that anhedonia should be explored as a potential target for novel ED treatments.