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Anhedonia is associated with suicidal ideation independently of depression: A meta‐analysis
Author(s) -
Ducasse Déborah,
Loas Gwenolé,
Dassa Déborah,
Gramaglia Carla,
Zeppegno Patrizia,
Guillaume Sébastien,
Olié Emilie,
Courtet Philippe
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
depression and anxiety
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.634
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1520-6394
pISSN - 1091-4269
DOI - 10.1002/da.22709
Subject(s) - anhedonia , suicidal ideation , clinical psychology , meta analysis , psychology , depression (economics) , psycinfo , psychiatry , poison control , suicide attempt , suicide prevention , observational study , confidence interval , medicine , medline , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , medical emergency , political science , law , economics , macroeconomics
Background Anhedonia is considered a suicide risk factor in patients with major affective disorders. Here, we wanted to quantify the association between anhedonia and current suicidal ideation according to the absence/presence of between‐group differences for depressive scores and psychiatric disorders. Methods We performed a meta‐analysis of data on studies retrieved from Medline, Web of Science, and PsycINFO from 1965 to 2016 using, among others, the terms (suicid* or depression) and anhedonia. Results We identified 15 observational case–control studies that investigated the anhedonia differences in individuals with and without current (i.e., within the past week, independently of the lifetime suicidality status) suicidal ideation (defined as thoughts of killing oneself). Overall, 657 subjects with and 6,690 subjects without current suicidal ideation could be compared. Anhedonia level was higher in the group with current suicidal ideation than in the group without, with a medium effect size (standardized mean difference = 0.57, z = 5.43, P < 0.001, 95% confidence interval, CI = 0.37–0.79). The association between anhedonia and current suicidal ideation remained significant when controlling for depression and psychiatric disorders. The anhedonia scales used in the selected studies did not allow investigating consummatory and motivational anhedonia separately. Conclusion Our major finding is the robust association between anhedonia and current suicidal ideation, independently of depression. This is highly relevant for the clinicians’ daily practice and might help improving suicidal risk detection and the development of new therapeutic strategies for suicide prevention.