Abstract

PADROS BLAZQUEZ, Ferran; MARTINEZ-MEDINA, María Patricia  and  CRUZ GARCIA, María África. Level of gaudiebility in schizophrenics outpatients: a pilot study. Salud Ment [online]. 2011, vol.34, n.6, pp.525-529. ISSN 0185-3325.

It has been suggested that anhedonia is a core symptom of the disorder that precedes and possibly plays a causal role during the subsequent development of schizophrenia. Several works confirmed high levels of anhedonia and lower levels of intrinsic motivation and positive affect in schizophrenic patients when compared to control subjects. On this paper we are dealing with the term gaudiebility, which is defined as a construct that includes all the set of modulators which regulate the enjoyment. The aim of this study was to evaluate if people suffering from schizophrenia show levels of gaudiebility significantly lower when compared to the average population. Data were obtained from two different adult samples. One sample (n = 30) made up by schizophrenic patients of Hospital del Mar de Barcelona (Spain), the other one (n = 37) made up by the general population was obtained by the use of snowball technique. All participants agreed to reply in writing to the gaudiebility scale (Padrós and Fernández, 2008). The results show that people diagnosed with schizophrenia (mean = 48.27 and SD = 11.22) showed lower scores in the level of gaudiebility [F (3) = 4.303, p = .008] than control group (mean = 56.73 and SD = 9.80). The results came out as expected and were also consistent with the high levels of anhedonia, as well as with the low positive affective and intrinsic motivation levels found in different research. Further studies controlling the schizophrenia subtypes and the sociodemographic variables are required. Our pilot study suggests that the low gaudiebility levels found in schizophrenic patients should motivate the design of specific intervention programs to raise gaudiebility levels.

Keywords : Schizophrenia; anhedonia; intrinsic motivation; enjoyment; positive affect.

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