title: Facial affect recognition in symptomatically remitted patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
abstract: Both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BD) have consistently been associated with deficits in facial affect recognition (FAR). These impairments have been related to various aspects of social competence and functioning and are relatively stable over time. However, individuals in remission may outperform patients experiencing an acute phase of the disorders. The present study directly contrasted FAR in symptomatically remitted patients with schizophrenia or BD and healthy volunteers and investigated its relationship with patients' outcomes. Compared to healthy control subjects, schizophrenia patients were impaired in the recognition of angry, disgusted, sad and happy facial expressions, while BD patients showed deficits only in the recognition of disgusted and happy facial expressions. When directly comparing the two patient groups individuals suffering from BD outperformed those with schizophrenia in the recognition of expressions depicting anger. There was no significant association between affect recognition abilities and symptomatic or psychosocial outcomes in schizophrenia patients. Among BD patients, relatively higher depression scores were associated with impairments in both the identification of happy faces and psychosocial functioning. Overall, our findings indicate that during periods of symptomatic remission the recognition of facial affect may be less impaired in patients with BD than in those suffering from schizophrenia. However, in the psychosocial context BD patients seem to be more sensitive to residual symptomatology.
authors.affiliation: Medical University Innsbruck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Biological Psychiatry Division, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria. Electronic address: nursen.yalcin@i-med.ac.at.
authors.forename: Nursen
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yalcin-Siedentopf
authors.affiliation: Medical University Innsbruck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, General and Social Psychiatry Division, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Christine M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Hoertnagl
authors.affiliation: Medical University Innsbruck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Biological Psychiatry Division, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Falko
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Biedermann
authors.affiliation: Medical University Innsbruck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Biological Psychiatry Division, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Susanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Baumgartner
authors.affiliation: Medical University Innsbruck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, General and Social Psychiatry Division, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Eberhard A
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Deisenhammer
authors.affiliation: Medical University Innsbruck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, General and Social Psychiatry Division, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Armand
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hausmann
authors.affiliation: Medical University Innsbruck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Biological Psychiatry Division, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Alexandra
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kaufmann
authors.affiliation: Medical University Innsbruck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, General and Social Psychiatry Division, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Kemmler
authors.affiliation: Private Medical University Salzburg, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Ignaz Harrerstrasse 79, A-5020 Salzburg, Austria.
authors.forename: Moritz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mühlbacher
authors.affiliation: Medical University Innsbruck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Biological Psychiatry Division, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Anna-Sophia
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Rauch
authors.affiliation: Medical University Innsbruck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Biological Psychiatry Division, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria; Medical University Innsbruck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, General and Social Psychiatry Division, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: W Wolfgang
authors.initials: WW
authors.lastname: Fleischhacker
authors.affiliation: Medical University Innsbruck, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Biological Psychiatry Division, Anichstrasse 35, A-6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hofer
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000150:complications*; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008569:Memory Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010045:Outpatients; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011788:Quality of Life; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology*; D012563:Schizophrenia, Paranoid / Q000150:complications*; D012919:Social Behavior
keywords: Affect recognition; Bipolar disorder; Psychosocial outcome; Schizophrenia; Social cognition