Background: Individuals with substance dependence commonly experience anhedonia. Theories of anhedonia distinguish between anticipatory and consummatory reward deficits, with the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) the first self-report scale to separately measure these two constructs. Several psychometric studies have analysed the trait version of the TEPS, but the state version of the TEPS has not been previously validated.
Methods: We examined the psychometric properties of the state version of the TEPS in 121 individuals with opiate dependence (81% Australian-born), to confirm its 2-factor structure and examine the internal consistency, convergent and divergent validity, test-retest reliability, and performance as a state measure.
Results: Confirmation of the 2-factor solution required removal of two items and allowing correlation between residuals of three pairs of highly-similar items. The resulting consummatory and anticipatory scales correlated strongly with each other (r=.76), suggesting poor divergent validity between them. Nevertheless, the scale showed good internal consistency (Chronbach's α: anticipatory=.90; consummatory=.84; total=.92), convergent (TEPS total and Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale r=-.76) and divergent validity (-.38<r<-.10 for measures of negative affect, anxiety, and alexithymia) with other psychological measures, and test-retest reliability. Changes in TEPS scores between baseline and 1-month follow-up correlated well with changes in scores on other state anhedonia and positive affect measures, suggesting that the TEPS state version functions well as a state measure.
Conclusion: In opioid-dependent participants, the TEPS state version appeared to have good validity as a measure of state anhedonia. However, evidence for its ability to distinguish between consummatory and anticipatory anhedonia was weak.
Keywords: Anhedonia; Opioid use disorder; Psychometrics; Reliability; Substance dependence; Validity.
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