Specificity of facial expression labeling deficits in childhood psychopathology.
BACKGROUND
We examined whether face-emotion labeling deficits are illness-specific or an epiphenomenon of generalized impairment in pediatric psychiatric disorders involving mood and behavioral dysregulation.


METHODS
Two hundred fifty-two youths (7-18 years old) completed child and adult facial expression recognition subtests from the Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy (DANVA) instrument. Forty-two participants had bipolar disorder (BD), 39 had severe mood dysregulation (SMD; i.e., chronic irritability, hyperarousal without manic episodes), 44 had anxiety and/or major depressive disorders (ANX/MDD), 35 had attention-deficit/hyperactivity and/or conduct disorder (ADHD/CD), and 92 were controls. Dependent measures were number of errors labeling happy, angry, sad, or fearful emotions.


RESULTS
BD and SMD patients made more errors than ANX/MDD, ADHD/CD, or controls when labeling adult or child emotional expressions. BD and SMD patients did not differ in their emotion-labeling deficits.


CONCLUSIONS
Face-emotion labeling deficits differentiate BD and SMD patients from patients with ANX/MDD or ADHD/CD and controls. The extent to which such deficits cause vs. result from emotional dysregulation requires further study.
Guyer
Amanda E
AE
Mood and Anxiety Program (MAP), National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Bethesda, MD, USA. amandaguyer@mail.nih.gov
McClure
Erin B
EB
Adler
Abby D
AD
Brotman
Melissa A
MA
Rich
Brendan A
BA
Kimes
Alane S
AS
Pine
Daniel S
DS
Ernst
Monique
M
Leibenluft
Ellen
E
D000293:Adolescent; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology*; D002648:Child; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009633:Nonverbal Communication; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012720:Severity of Illness Index