title: Facial emotion recognition deficits in abstinent cannabis dependent patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cannabis is clearly the most popular illicit drug in North America, Europe and in other parts of the world. Evidence is accumulating for the involvement of the endocannabinoid system in emotional processing. However, only few studies examined emotional processing in chronic, heavy cannabis users and these studies were performed in cannabis dependent patients who were abstinent for 12-48 hours. The aim of this study was to investigate facial emotion identification and discrimination abilities in patients with cannabis dependence who were abstinent for at least 1 month.
  
  
  METHODS
  The study included 30 males with cannabis dependency according to DSM-IV criteria and who had been abstinent for at least 1 month and 30 healthy controls. All the subjects were evaluated with Facial Emotion Identification Test (FEIT) and Facial Emotion Discrimination Test (FEDT).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The main finding of this study was the presence of deficits in both identification and discrimination of facial emotions in cannabis dependent patients during abstinence. In addition, when we examined negative and positive emotions separately, we found out that abstinent cannabis dependent patients performed significantly worse than controls in the identification of negative emotions but not positive emotions.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings indicate that facial emotion recognition deficits which have previously been observed in current cannabis users are still detectable in abstinent cannabis dependent patients and do not improve quickly with abstinence (an average of 3.2 months).
authors.affiliation: Katip Celebi University Ataturk Training and Research Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, İzmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Adem
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bayrakçı
authors.affiliation: Kırklareli State Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Kırklareli, Turkey.
authors.forename: Engin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Sert
authors.affiliation: Katip Celebi University Ataturk Training and Research Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, İzmir, Turkey. Electronic address: zorlunabi@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Nabi
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zorlu
authors.affiliation: Katip Celebi University Ataturk Training and Research Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, İzmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Almila
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Erol
authors.affiliation: Katip Celebi University Ataturk Training and Research Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, İzmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Aybala
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sarıçiçek
authors.affiliation: Katip Celebi University Ataturk Training and Research Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, İzmir, Turkey.
authors.forename: Levent
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mete
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002188:Cannabis; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D004192:Discrimination, Psychological; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D002189:Marijuana Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D013375:Substance Withdrawal Syndrome / Q000523:psychology*