Department of Clinical Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
Depress Anxiety. 2011 Oct 3;28(10):924-31. doi: 10.1002/da.20887.
Individuals with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) are characterized by excessive concerns about perceived defects or flaws in their appearance, most commonly, facial features. Previous research has shown that BDD sufferers, relative to mentally healthy controls, are characterized by emotion recognition deficits (particularly a bias to misinterpret neutral facial expressions in a negative way). It remains an open question though whether these deficits can be modified through specific training programs.
To address this question, we evaluated emotion recognition among individuals with BDD (n = 34), individuals with a dermatological condition (n = 34), and mentally healthy control participants (n = 34) before and after a single-session emotion recognition training program.
As expected, BDD participants were overall significantly worse in identifying neutral expressions, relative to the other groups, whereas no difference was obtained between the dermatology and control groups. Further, with respect to neutral and scared expressions, BDD participants improved significantly more in the training condition, relative to the nontraining condition.
There is initial evidence that deficits in recognizing neutral and scared expressions can be normalized through a specific training program when evaluated immediately after the training session. It needs to be addressed in future research whether emotion recognition training programs can diminish these deficits on the long term, and how improved emotion recognition might be related to BDD's symptom reduction such as decreased avoidance behaviors in social situations.
患有躯体变形障碍（BDD）的个体通常过分关注自己外貌上的缺陷或瑕疵，最常见的是面部特征。先前的研究表明，与心理健康的对照组相比，BDD 患者的情绪识别能力存在缺陷（特别是存在将中性面部表情误解为负面表情的倾向）。然而，这些缺陷是否可以通过特定的训练计划来改善，仍然是一个悬而未决的问题。
为了解决这个问题，我们在单次情绪识别训练前后评估了 BDD 患者（n=34）、皮肤病患者（n=34）和心理健康对照组参与者（n=34）的情绪识别能力。
正如预期的那样，BDD 患者在识别中性表情方面总体上明显差于其他组，而皮肤病患者和对照组之间没有差异。此外，对于中性和惊恐表情，BDD 患者在训练条件下的改善明显高于非训练条件。
有初步证据表明，通过特定的训练计划，当在训练后立即评估时，可以使识别中性和惊恐表情的缺陷正常化。在未来的研究中需要解决的问题是，情绪识别训练计划是否可以长期减轻这些缺陷，以及改善的情绪识别如何与 BDD 的症状减轻相关，例如在社交情境中减少回避行为。
