Reward Dysfunction in General and Specific Psychopathology in Children and Adults

Background: Reward dysfunction has been implicated in many psychiatric disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorders, depression, and substance use disorders. However, psychiatric comorbidities are common, and the specificity of reward dysfunction to individual psychopathologies is unknown. The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between reward functioning and specific or general psychopathologies. Methods: 1044 adults and their 1215 children (ages 6-12) completed various measures of the Positive Valence System domain from the Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), which included the Delayed and Probability Discounting Tasks, Energy Expenditure for Reward Task, and Iowa Gambling Task. Children also completed the Experienced Pleasure Scale for children, while adults completed the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale and the Behavioral Activation System tasks. Psychopathology was assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for children and the Adult Self Report (ASR) for parents. Results: One general factor identified via principal factors factor analysis explained the majority of variance in psychopathology in both groups. Reward measures in both adults and children were significantly associated with general psychopathology as well as most specific psychopathologies. Some associations between reward and psychopathology did not hold following removal of general psychopathology; nonetheless, certain reward constructs were uniquely associated with specific disorder problems but not general psychopathology. Conclusion: Disorder problem specific associations with reward functioning can be identified after removal of comorbidity. General propensity toward psychopathology is significantly but not uniquely correlated with reward dysfunction. Altogether, this may have broader implications for future study of the role of reward in disease pathogenesis.