This is the first comprehensive two-volume collection on anhedonia, a disorder that played an important role in psychopathology theories at the beginning of the twentieth century. Anhedonia is a condition in which the capacity of pleasure is partially or completely lost, and it refers to both a personality trait, and a “state symptom” in various neuropsychiatric and physical disorders. It has a putative neural substrate, originating in the dopaminergic mesolimbic and mesocortical reward circuit. Over the past three decades cognitive psychology and behavioral neuroscience have expanded our understanding of anhedonia and other reward-related processes. The aim of this new two-volume collection on anhedonia is to highlight the contributions of eminent scientists in this field as well as to provide readers with comprehensive accounts of recent developments as perceived by the authors. This monograph is divided into five parts. Volume I contains parts one and two (Conceptual Issues and Neurobiological Advances) including 14 chapters that serve as an introduction and overview of conceptual issues. Volume II contains three parts (Anhedonia in Psychotic Disorders, Anhedonia in Mood and Personality Disorders, and Anhedonia in Neurological and Physical Disorders) including 15 chapters that provide an overview of the construct, measurement of anhedonia in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, hedonic capacity and related factors in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, anhedonia as an indicator of genetic liability for schizophrenia, and as a trait marker for depression, the role of an anhedonia in trauma-related disorders, anorexia nervosa, stress-induced eating disorders, schizotypal traits and risk of suicide. This book will be of interest to a broad spectrum of readers including psychiatrists, psychologists, neurologists, neuroscientists, endocrinologists, pharmacologists, general practitioners, geriatricians, graduate students, and health care providers in the fields of mental health.

This is the first comprehensive two-volume collection on anhedonia, a disorder that played an important role in psychopathology theories at the beginning of the twentieth century. Anhedonia is a condition in which the capacity of pleasure is partially or completely lost, and it refers to both a personality trait, and a “state symptom” in various neuropsychiatric and physical disorders. It has a putative neural substrate, originating in the dopaminergic mesolimbic and mesocortical reward circuit. Over the past three decades cognitive psychology and behavioral neuroscience have expanded our understanding of anhedonia and other reward-related processes. The aim of this new two-volume collection on anhedonia is to highlight the contributions of eminent scientists in this field as well as to provide readers with comprehensive accounts of recent developments as perceived by the authors. This monograph is divided into five parts. Volume I contains parts one and two (Conceptual Issues and Neurobiological Advances) including 14 chapters that serve as an introduction and overview of conceptual issues. Volume II contains three parts (Anhedonia in Psychotic Disorders, Anhedonia in Mood and Personality Disorders, and Anhedonia in Neurological and Physical Disorders) including 15 chapters that provide an overview of the construct, measurement of anhedonia in schizophrenia spectrum disorders, hedonic capacity and related factors in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, anhedonia as an indicator of genetic liability for schizophrenia, and as a trait marker for depression, the role of an anhedonia in trauma-related disorders, anorexia nervosa, stress-induced eating disorders, schizotypal traits and risk of suicide. This book will be of interest to a broad spectrum of readers including psychiatrists, psychologists, neurologists, neuroscientists, endocrinologists, pharmacologists, general practitioners, geriatricians, graduate students, and health care providers in the fields of mental health.

A fascinating exploration of the profound loss of pleasure in our daily lives and the seven steps for restoring it. Pleasure. We know what it feels like and many of us spend our days trying to experience it. But can too much pleasure actually be bad for us? Yes, says Dr. Archibald Hart, clinical psychologist and expert in behavorial psychology. Backed by recent brain-imaging research, Dr. Hart shares that to some extent, our pursuit of extreme and overstimulating thrills hijacks our pleasure system and robs us of our ability to experience pleasure in simple things. We are literally being thrilled to death. In this insightful book, Dr. Hart explores the stark rise in a phenomenon known as anhedonia, an inability to experience pleasure or happiness. Previously linked only to serious emotional disorders, anhedonia is now seen as a contributing factor in depression (specifically nonsadness depression) and in the growing number of people who complain of profound boredom. This emotional numbness and loss of joy are results of the overuse of our brain's pleasure circuits. In Thrilled to Death, Dr. Hart explains the processes of the brain's pleasure center, the damaging trends of overindulgence and overstimulation, the signs and problems of anhedonia, and the seven important steps we must take to recover our wonderful joy in living.

A sex therapist and neuroscientist describes anhedonia, the inability to feel a satisfactory amount of pleasure--and provides the pathway back to fully enjoying sex, food, time with family and friends, and other pastimes, while also staving off depression, anxiety, and addiction. Assaulted with opportunities for pleasure everywhere--from sex to food or exotic escapes--our culture is becoming more depressed and anxious. Research has shown that many people are having less sex, and that those who do have a lot enjoy it less. For more than thirty years, Nan Wise has worked as a therapist helping people gain a satisfying sex life. In recent years, her work has shifted to the study of anhedonia--the inability to experience pleasure from activities usually found enjoyable--and why more people than ever suffer from it. In Why Good Sex Matters, Wise not only reveals the fundamental problem in how we think about sex and pleasure but also how we arrived at this problematic relationship to begin with. This fascinating book helps us reclaim our innate capacity for joy, fun, exuberance, curiosity, and humor, while showing how reaching our sexual potential makes us smarter, happier, and more productive people. Ultimately, it reveals how a new understanding of sex can lead to a more expansive experience of pleasure in all aspects of our lives.

Positive Affect Treatment for Depression and Anxiety: Workbook includes all necessary materials, including worksheets and activities, for therapists and clients to complete the treatment program for depression, anxiety and anhedonia, in order to help individuals regain interest and enjoyment in their usual activities while improving their quality of life.

ABSOLUTE ANHEDONIA is a satirical novel about Jeff Winters, a man living in a dystopian society. Believing life to be meaningless, Jeff has lost the ability to feel anything. He is addicted to the internet, working, and generally tries to avoid contact with other people as much as realistically possible. When he makes a big mistake at his job, Jeff is forced to abandon his comfort zone and flees to an island with no real plan.

Considerable research has been devoted to understanding how positive emotional processes influence our thoughts and behaviors, and the resulting body of work clearly indicates that positive emotion is a vital ingredient in our human quest towards well-being and thriving. Yet the role of positive emotion in psychopathology has been underemphasized, such that comparatively less scientific attention has been devoted to understanding ways in which positive emotions might influence and be influenced by psychological disturbance. Presenting cutting-edge scientific work from an internationally-renowned group of contributors, The Oxford Handbook of Positive Emotion and Psychopathology provides unparalleled insight into the role of positive emotions in mental health and illness. The book begins with a comprehensive overview of key psychological processes that link positive emotional experience and psychopathological outcomes. The following section focuses on specific psychological disorders, including depression, anxiety, trauma, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia, as well as developmental considerations. The third and final section of the Handbook discusses translational implications of this research and how examining populations characterized by positive emotion disturbance enables a better understanding of psychiatric course and risk factors, while simultaneously generating opportunities to bridge gaps between basic science models and psychosocial interventions. With its rich and multi-layered focus, The Oxford Handbook of Positive Emotion and Psychopathology will be of interest to researchers, teachers, and students from a range of disciplines, including social psychology, clinical psychology and psychiatry, biological psychology and health psychology, affective science, and neuroscience.

Drug addiction is a chronically relapsing mental illness involving severe motivational disturbances and loss of behavioral control leading to personal dev- tation. The disorder af?icts millions of people, often co-occurring with other mental illnesses with enormous social and economic costs to society. Several decades of research have established that drugs of abuse hijack the brain’s natural reward substrates, and that chronic drug use causes aberrant alterations in these rewa- processing systems. Such aberrations may be demonstrated at the cellular, neu- transmitter, and regional levels of information processing using either animal models or neuroimaging in humans following chronic drug exposure. Behaviorally, these neural aberrations manifest as exaggerated, altered or dysfunctional expr- sion of learned behavioral responses related to the pursuit of drug rewards, or to environmental factors that precipitate craving and relapse during periods of drug withdrawal. Current research efforts are aimed at understanding the associative and causal relationships between these neurobiological and behavioral events, such that treatment options will ultimately employ therapeutic amelioration of neural de?cits and restoration of normal brain processing to promote efforts to abstain from further drug use. The Behavioral Neuroscience of Drug Addiction, part of the Springer series on Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences, contains scholarly reviews by noted experts on multiple topics from both basic and clinical neuroscience ?elds.

This step-by-step guide to Brief Behavioural Activation (Brief BA) provides everything practitioners need to use this approach with adolescents. It is suitable for new practitioners as well as those who are more experienced. Brief BA is a straightforward, structured and effective intervention for treating adolescents showing symptoms of depression, focusing on helping young people to recover through doing more of what matters to them. This practical manual contains guidance on how to deliver Brief BA at every stage, photocopiable activities and worksheets for the client and their parents, and a section on the research and theory behind the approach. It includes information and advice on how to assess adolescent depression, get to know the young person and their priorities better and help them to do more of what matters.

For many years, the need to develop valid tools to evaluate signs and symptoms of Parkinson Disease (PD) has been present. However the understanding of all intricacies of rating scales development was not widely available and the first attempts were relatively crude. In 2002, the Movement Disorders Society created a task force to systemize the measurement of Parkinson's Disease. Since then, the Task Force has produced and published several critiques to the available rating scales addressing both motor and non-motor domains of Parkinson Disease. Additionally the task force initiated a project to develop a new version of the UPDRS, the MDS-UPDRS. But none of this was made available in one convenient source. Until now. Rating Scales in Parkinson's Disease is written for researchers from the medical and social sciences, and for health professionals wishing to evaluate the progress of their patients suffering from Parkinson Disease. The book is both exhaustive in the description of the scales and informative on the advantages and limitations of each scale. As such, the text clearly guides readers on how to choose and use the instruments available. Extensive cross-referenced tables and charts closely integrate the parts of the book to facilitate readers in moving from one symptom domain to another.