What is social anhedonia

You're not really in the mood for socializing. You avoid them, because even when you made the effort to follow a group, you found that you were more «empty» than «full». You didn't derive the slightest joy or pleasure. On the contrary, you felt tired. It may not be your fault - and how you woke up - but the dopamine levels you were secreting. You may be suffering from anhedonia.

Anhedonia is defined as the inability or reduced ability to experience pleasure, from any activity. It sounds like a simple thing. It is not. Hence it belongs to the neuropsychiatric disorders.

That is, it's not something that happens to us because we woke up like this. It's much deeper than that.

According to research on the neurobiological mechanisms of anhedonia, published in 2008, it is considered a key characteristic of major depressive disorder, according to the DSM-IV criteria for major depression and the definition of the melancholic subtype.

Analyses of people with different levels of anhedonia show that a central - but not exclusive - role is played by dopamine. It is a chemical neurotransmitter compound in the brain, which is involved in many major functions. It is involved in the regulation of behaviour, cognition, sleep, mood, working memory, reward and pleasure.

Anhedonia has two types

There are two different types of anhedonia:

• Η physics - we cannot enjoy physical sensations.
• Η social - we can't enjoy being around other people.

Both are considered symptoms of depression and other mental and physical health issues.

Social anhedonia not related to social anxiety, which includes fear, negative emotions and introversion.

How to tell if you have social anhedonia

According to Good Therapy, the signs of social anhedonia include:

1. Social withdrawal - you don't want the activities that involve other people.
2. Abstinence from interpersonal relationships.
3. Reduced emotional response - you find it hard to smile, hug and celebrate.
4. Depressive mood - you choose to be alone.
5. Difficulty in social adaptation - you find it difficult to adapt to a social environment.
6. Reduced optimism.
7. Monotone verbal expression - as long as you don't experience joy, you speak in a flat way.

Doesn't social reward mean anything to you? There's a reason

A study published in the European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience reported that «people with schizophrenia and social anhedonia show altered neural processing for social reward processing». Which leads to impaired social interaction and social dysfunction.

As the researchers from China (led by Dr Raymond Chan, from the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) wrote, patients with schizophrenia and people with social anhedonia have been shown to have impaired social reward processing, ultimately leading to impaired social interaction and social dysfunction.

However, most of the previous studies on social reward prediction in schizophrenia spectrum disorders have been limited to behavioral design.

It remained unclear whether the putative neural processing, for predicting social reward, is different in people with schizophrenia and in people with social anhedonia.

The Chinese scientists specifically examined the underlying neural mechanisms of social reward prediction in these populations, in 23 people with schizophrenia and 37 people with social anhedonia. Preliminary findings suggest that «patients with schizophrenia and individuals with social anhedonia appear to have altered neural processing, to predict social rewards. Such neural activities showed an attenuated correlation with the characteristics of a real social network.».