Faculty of Psychology, Institute for Clinical, Biological and Differential Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Br J Clin Psychol. 2009 Nov;48(Pt 4):363-75. doi: 10.1348/014466509X404845. Epub 2009 Feb 14.
The ability to recognize facial emotional expressions is a fundamental skill that is necessary for successful social interaction. Previous studies examining this competency in patients with bipolar disorder have generated mixed results. Since bipolar patients show multiple psychosocial difficulties even after remission, this study was aimed at further elucidating emotion recognition deficits in bipolar patients.
Sixty-two stable bipolar out-patients (37 females; 25 males) and 62 matched healthy controls participated in the study. Explicit facial emotion recognition accuracy was measured with a computerized task.
Analysis of emotion recognition performance revealed no gender effect but a significant group effect, indicating significantly worse accuracy in patients with bipolar I. Patients with bipolar II disorder did not differ significantly from healthy controls. These results were not correlated with either residual symptoms or intellectual impairments.
Based on our results, patients with bipolar disorder vary not only in diagnosis, but also in social cognitive functions, all of which should be addressed in clinical treatment. Future studies should clarify whether emotion recognition deficits are involved in the development and maintenance of bipolar disorder.
识别面部情绪表情的能力是成功社交互动所必需的基本技能。先前研究检查双相情感障碍患者的这种能力产生了不同的结果。由于双相情感障碍患者即使在缓解后仍表现出多种心理社会困难，因此本研究旨在进一步阐明双相情感障碍患者的情绪识别缺陷。
62 名稳定的双相情感障碍门诊患者（37 名女性；25 名男性）和 62 名匹配的健康对照者参与了研究。使用计算机化任务测量了外显面部情绪识别准确性。
情绪识别表现分析显示没有性别效应，但有显著的组间效应，表明双相 I 型患者的准确性明显较差。双相 II 型障碍患者与健康对照组无显著差异。这些结果与残留症状或智力障碍无关。
根据我们的结果，双相情感障碍患者不仅在诊断上存在差异，而且在社会认知功能上也存在差异，所有这些都应在临床治疗中加以解决。未来的研究应该阐明情绪识别缺陷是否涉及双相情感障碍的发展和维持。
