Inability to experience pleasure is known as:

Appeared in: DSSSB 12 August 2024

Explanation

Anhedonia is the correct term for the inability to experience pleasure from activities that are normally found enjoyable.
The term originates from the Greek roots 'an-' meaning 'without' and 'hēdonē' meaning 'pleasure'.
It is a primary symptom of major depressive disorder and is also considered a significant negative symptom in schizophrenia, impacting a patient's motivation and quality of life.

Why Other Options Were Wrong

Option B: Ambivalence refers to having simultaneous conflicting feelings, such as love and hate, towards a person or object. It does not describe a lack of pleasure.
Option C: Agnosia is a neurological disorder related to perception and recognition. It is the inability to process sensory information, not an emotional state.
Option D: Apraxia is a motor disorder caused by damage to the brain. It involves the inability to execute learned, purposeful movements, which is unrelated to the capacity for pleasure.

Related Visual

Clinical Relevance

Nursing practice connection: This is primarily an exam-oriented knowledge point with limited direct bedside application, so retain Psychiatric Terminology: Negative Symptoms and Cognitive Deficits as background academic context rather than a clinical decision trigger.
In a mental status examination, assessing for anhedonia is critical for diagnosing mood disorders and schizophrenia. Nurses can ask questions like, "What do you do for fun?" or "Are you still enjoying the things you used to enjoy?".
The presence of anhedonia often indicates a more severe form of depression and can be a predictor of a poorer response to treatment, requiring more intensive intervention.
What if? If a patient reports a lack of pleasure but also expresses intense, contradictory feelings about their relationships, the nurse should investigate further to differentiate between anhedonia and ambivalence, as this will guide the therapeutic approach.

How to Approach the Question

First, identify the key phrase in the question: "inability to experience pleasure."
This is a definition-based recall question. Your task is to match the definition to the correct psychiatric term.
Analyze the root words of the options if you know them. 'An-' means 'without' and 'hedonia' relates to pleasure (from hedonism). This makes 'Anhedonia' a strong candidate.
Briefly recall the definitions of the other terms to confirm your choice. Ambivalence (conflicting feelings), Agnosia (recognition failure), and Apraxia (motor action failure) do not fit the definition.
Select the term that directly corresponds to the inability to feel pleasure.

Concept Tested & Keywords

Concept Tested: Psychiatric Terminology: Negative Symptoms and Cognitive Deficits
Stem keywords: Inability, experience pleasure
Lead-in keywords: is known as
Negative lead-in flag: false

Question ID

QB8A0cEpKIbVQLMk0M5QYn

Reference Book

E6 Robert Boland, Marcia L. Verduin - Kaplan and Sadock's Comprehensive Text of Psychiatry-Wolters Kluwer Health (2024) (pp 1-16525 of 16525) pp. 4730-4732, 15282-15284, 1680-1682

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