The Role of Repetitive Negative Thinking in Anhedonia
Gabriele Molteni, Gabriele Caselli
The term anhedonia refers to the diminished capacity to experience pleasure and is a key symptom in several psychological disorders, such as depressive disorders. Negative repetitive thinking, which includes worry and rumination, is a cognitive process characterized by recurring negative thoughts and represents one of the psychopathological mechanisms involved in depressive symptoms such as low mood, self-devaluation and withdrawal. The aim of this review is to explore the relationship between negative repetitive thinking and anhedonia in order to assess whether anhedonia stems at least in part from worry or rumination, and whether interventions targeting negative repetitive thinking may also improve this depressive dimension. The review includes studies published up to February 2024. All material was retrieved from electronic databases EBSCOhost and PubMed. Based on the adopted inclusion and exclusion criteria, eight publications were selected. The results support the existence of an association between rumination and the presence of anhedonic depressive symptomatology. Likewise, high levels of positive affect are associated with a reduced tendency to ruminate. Although the directionality of the relationship between these constructs remains difficult to establish, levels of ruminations may have a deleterious impact on the reduction of sensitivity to positive stimuli and experiences, thereby hindering adaptive emotional regulation processes.
Keywords
Anhedonia, Repetitive Negative Thought, Rumination, Emotion Regulation, Systematic Review.
