{"id":8273,"date":"2019-07-17T05:55:49","date_gmt":"2019-07-17T05:55:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplyhealth.today\/?p=8273"},"modified":"2021-04-20T20:12:20","modified_gmt":"2021-04-20T20:12:20","slug":"unusual-risk-factors-for-anhedonia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplyhealth.today\/unusual-risk-factors-for-anhedonia\/","title":{"rendered":"Unusual Risk Factors for Anhedonia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Anhedonia is something that can strike at any time and for a number of different reasons. There are, as with any illness or complication from medication certain risk factors which can make it more likely for a person to be affected by anhedonia than your regular everyday person. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This list aims to show 8 unusual risk factors for the development of anhedonia that may not have been considered before or in much detail. As with any medical or health concern, it is always a good idea to seek the advice of a doctor for anything that seems unusual or troubling, as this will provide a person with the best platform from which to seek out the best and most appropriate forms of treatment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is also true that just because these risk factors might cause one person to develop anhedonia, it doesn\u2019t mean that everyone who displays these risk factors will go the same way and end up developing anhedonia themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1.     Major depressive disorder<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The condition known as anhedonia occurs in up 70% of people with a major depressive <\/a>disorder, which is a staggeringly high percentage. Anhedonia is recognized as a core symptom of major depressive disorders; meaning that individuals experiencing this symptom could be diagnosed with depression, even in the absence of any discernible or easily identifiable low or depressed mood and sadness. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) describes what it calls a lack of interest or pleasure amongst sufferers, but these can be difficult to identify or diagnose given that people, as a rule, do tend to become less interested in things which do not give them pleasure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things, like eating food or listening to music, are good ways of measuring whether anhedonia is present, but it is absolutely necessary that a combination of quantitative data and anecdotal evidence from times of good health are available so that comparisons can be drawn fairly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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2.     Schizophrenia<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Anhedonia is frequently cited as just one component of negative symptoms in the condition called schizophrenia<\/a>. People with schizophrenia have reported experiencing significantly fewer positive emotions than those reported by healthy individuals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This said, there have been reports and findings from certain studies that have shown that people with schizophrenia respond positively to external stimuli, and when compared with healthy neurological individuals, there is actually little to no difference in responses. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is problematic for professionals, in that it seems contradictory, and this is why a number of different testing methods are essential when it comes to providing someone with an accurate diagnosis of whether or not anhedonia is present. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is absolutely certain though, is that schizophrenia is definitely up there with a list of high-risk factors for a person developing anhedonia. The key thing here is to learn from the mistakes of the past and not automatically assume that one size fits all when it comes to the pattern of diagnosing people, as that is certainly not the case with anhedonia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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3. \tSubstance-related disorders<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Anhedonia has been found to be fairly common in people who are dependent upon a wide variety of drugs, including alcohol, opioids<\/a>, and nicotine. Whilst anhedonia becomes less severe over time, it is a significant predictor of someone relapsing into addiction and substance abuse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are few positive things to say about any kind of substance abuse or addiction, other than that attitudes towards people that are affected seem to be changing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There used to be a hard-line approach from a society that sympathy wasn’t due to the people who had apparently made the choices themselves and condemned themselves to a life of crime and addiction, but nowadays there is more of an understanding that the plight in which these people find themselves is often not of their own making, and so perhaps empathy rather than sympathy is due. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anhedonia is just another one in a long line of things that substance abuse and addiction can be a risk factor for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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4. \tPost-traumatic stress disorder<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Although PTSD <\/a>is associated with a significantly reduced level of motivation, it is also associated with elevated sensation seeking, together with no deficits in physiological arousal, or even self-reported pleasure to a range of positive stimuli. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

PTSD is also associated with blunted affect or flat affect, which may be due to the high comorbidity with depression. PTSD is an extremely complex condition that can affect virtually anyone. A soldier returning from a warzone may experience PTSD that can eventually turn into anhedonia. But it is also true that a teenager or young person could exhibit signs of PTSD through some kind of vague memory of exposure to early trauma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

People who have lived through or witnessed accidents or serious incidents like terrorist attacks have also found themselves susceptible to the onset of PTSD. However it comes on and whoever it affects, it is clear that PTSD is a significant risk factor for the development of anhedonia in people of all different ages and from all kinds of backgrounds.

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5. \tParkinson’s disease<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Anhedonia occurs frequently in people who are affected by Parkinson’s disease, with rates between 7%\u201345% being reported in studies. Whether or not anhedonia is directly related to the high rates of depression in Parkinson’s disease<\/a> is unknown, but the correlation does little to rule this out. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some of the misconceptions about Parkinson’s disease see it labeled as something which only affects the old and the weak, but this is untrue, as Parkinson’s can affect young people too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As this is the case, the risk that Parkinson’s poses for people in terms of the developing conditions such as anhedonia is significant and must be considered, as the earlier someone is diagnosed with Parkinson\u2019s disease, the more of their life they have left to live and the greater the potential for them to experience less enjoyment from all areas of their life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prevalence of depression in Parkinson\u2019s sufferers is also something that must play a part in this.

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6. \tSexual anhedonia<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Sexual anhedonia in the male population is also commonly known as ‘ejaculatory anhedonia’. This condition means that a man will ejaculate with no accompanying sense of pleasure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst rare, the condition is most frequently found in males, whilst women can also suffer from a lack of pleasure when the body goes through the orgasm process as well. There are a number of things that can lead to sexual anhedonia including h<\/strong>yperprolactinemia, hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), which is also called inhibited sexual desire, low levels of the hormone testosterone <\/a>and even some spinal cord injuries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other causes of the condition, which is a risk factor for the more generic anhedonia, include things like multiple sclerosis, the continuous and lengthy use of SSRI antidepressants, or having used SSRI antidepressants in the past. <\/strong>It is very uncommon that a neurological examination in conjunction with blood tests will determine the cause of a specific case of sexual anhedonia, but it is very possible that this form of anhedonia will lead on to the more general form of anhedonia, as discussed at length in this article.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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7. \tSocial anhedonia<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another form of anhedonia that can be a risk factor for the more generic form of anhedonia is what is referred to as Social anhedonia, which is defined as a complete or partial disinterest in social contact and a lack of pleasure resulting from social situations, typically characterized by social withdrawal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This troublesome characteristic usually presents and manifests as indifference to other people, often called apathy. In stark contrast to introversion, social anhedonia represents a deficit in the ability to experience pleasure, as opposed to the avoidance altogether. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may have previously been the case that social anhedonia was misunderstood, misdiagnosed <\/a>or overlooked altogether, but further research is casting light on it as something to be reckoned with on its own, but also as something which could signal the impending arrival of the more general form of anhedonia that so many people suffer with, for a number of different reasons, this being one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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8.     Signs and symptoms to look out for<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Along with a decreased ability to experience interpersonal pleasure, there are a number of signs and symptoms to look out for when it comes to recognizing anhedonia. These signs and symptoms are perhaps best understood as risk factors and they include things like social withdrawal and isolation, as well as an apparent decreased need for social contact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The word \u2018need\u2019 is somewhat problematic here, as it draws the opposite distinction between liking and wanting when compared with the definitions of anhedonia that are most widely used and accepted. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other risk factors to be on the lookout for include things like a person displaying a lack of close friends and intimate relationships, as well as a decreased quality in the relationships that they do have. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Poor social adjustment and anxiety <\/a>are other things that could be risk factors for the development of anhedonia. All of the risk factors discussed here are more than worth keeping an eye out for, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\r\n

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