title: Reading simple and complex facial expressions in patients with major depressive disorder and anxiety disorders.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Decoding facial expression is important for psychological well-being. This study examined facial emotion recognition of simple/complex and pleasant/unpleasant emotions in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and anxiety disorders (AnD).
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with MDD (n = 37), AnD (n = 36) and healthy controls (HC) (n = 40) participated in this study. The recognition accuracy of emotional faces was calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with MDD had significantly lower recognition accuracy compared to HC. Patients with MDD exhibited lower recognition accuracy for simple emotions compared to patients with AnD and HC, and lower accuracy for complex emotions compared only to HC. Patients with AnD and HC showed comparable recognition accuracy for simple emotions, which were lower than that of patients with MDD. However, in recognition accuracy of complex emotions, AnD was not significantly different from either MDD or HC.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with MDD and AnD have a distinctive difficulty with the recognition of facial expressions. The recognition of complex emotions in patients with MDD and AnD should be studied further.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Goyang, Korea.
authors.forename: Sunkyung
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Sogang University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Hyang Sook
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Goyang, Korea.
authors.forename: Jeong-In
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Goyang, Korea.|Department of Psychology, Korea University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Seunga
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Clinical Emotion and Cognition Research Laboratory, Goyang, Korea.|Department of Psychiatry, Inje University, Ilsan-Paik Hospital, Goyang, Korea.
authors.forename: Seung-Hwan
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Lee
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D032882:Comprehension; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: anxiety; depression; emotions; facial expression; reading facial expression