[French translation of the Chapman Social and Physical Anhedonia Questionnaire: validation of the French translation in controls and schizophrenic patients]

Abstract

Whereas Chapman's social and physical scales are the most used instruments for the assessment of anhedonia in schizophrenia, no French translation has been still validated by the authors. Therefore, the aim of this study was first to translate into French the both scales, and after back translation, to obtain the agreement of the original authors. Second, the aim was to establish values and to establish the cut-off beyond of which French subjects could be considered as anhedonic. One hundred and twenty-three subjects were included: 72 control subjects without mental disorders and 51 stable schizophrenic patients defined by the DSM III-R, ICD 9, ICD 10, RDC or Feighner criteria. According to the literature, schizophrenic patients had higher scores for both scales than control subjects (p < 0.001; Student t test). The social anhedonia scores are different due to cultural variations. The distribution of physical anhedonia scores in control subjects or in schizophrenic patients differed from normal distributions (respectively, p < 0.05; p < 0.0001; Shapiro-Wilks test). The distribution of social anhedonia scores differed from normal distributions (p < 0.01) only in schizophrenic patients but not in control subjects. By maximising the Younden indice [Sensitivity + Specificity -1], the cut-off of the physical anhedonia score was 18 (Younden indice = 0.45), and the cut-off of the social anhedonia score was 12 (Younden indice = 0.24). In using this cut-off, the French physical anhedonia scale had a good positive predictive value (evaluated by logistic regression) for schizophrenia. Therefore, a patient with a physical anhedonia score beyond 18 have a probability of 64% to be schizophrenic. In contrast, the social anhedonia scale was less discriminant for schizophrenia. Indeed, patient with a social anhedonia score beyond 12 have a probability of 52% to be schizophrenic. This French version of Chapman's anhedonia scales could be considered as an useful instrument to assess anhedonia, in particular physical anhedonia, in schizophrenic patients.