For US Nurse Practitioners

This quick guide summarizes how anhedonia symptoms can present in psychiatric disorders, including major depressive disorder, bipolar I disorder, and schizophrenia, and reviews its links to greater clinical severity and increased suicide risk. It outlines common rating scales that include anhedonia items and provides simple, practical approaches to support brief screening and patient conversations in routine care. This resource is designed to help clinicians identify anhedonia early and incorporate its assessment into everyday clinical decision-making.

The Kiddie Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (Kiddie-PANSS) is a 30-item clinician-rated instrument adapted from the adult PANSS to evaluate schizophrenia symptom severity in children and adolescents. It is designed to assess the severity of positive, negative, and general psychopathology symptoms in pediatric schizophrenia spectrum disorders. It modifies item wording and administration methods for developmental appropriateness.¹

The Child Mania Rating Scale–Parent Version (CMRS-P) is a parent-report rating scale designed to assess manic symptoms in children and adolescents.¹ Adapted from Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-4) criteria for mania, the CMRS-P provides a reliable and validated method to differentiate pediatric mania from attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).^1,2

Pradeep Manudhane, MD, and Alan “Tony” Amberg, MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, discuss the importance of making an accurate diagnosis of bipolar I disorder (BP-1) and highlight the potential downstream consequences of misdiagnosis.