Preliminary Evidence for Anhedonia as a Marker of Sexual Trauma in Female Adolescents.

Abstract

Introduction: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common condition with heterogeneous presentations that often include predominant anhedonia. Previous studies have revealed that childhood trauma is a potent risk factor for the development of MDD; however, the clinical implications of this finding are not fully understood.

Methods: Participants were adolescents (age 13-21 years) with a diagnosis of moderate-to-severe major depressive disorder and healthy controls. We used generalized linear models to assess the relationship between anhedonia severity and trauma severity in a cross-sectional dataset.

Results: This cross-sectional analysis of an adolescent sample that underwent clinical evaluations and a trauma assessment, suggested that anhedonia was associated with historical trauma severity. The association between anhedonia and sexual abuse was greater in female participants compared to male participants.

Discussion: Our results were partially in line with the reported literature in adult samples. Future studies aiming to characterize the trauma-anhedonia relationship in adolescents should utilize scales designed specifically to measure these constructs in young populations, and scales that assess specific subtypes of anhedonia.