Larsson Cornelia, Lee Maria, Lundgren Tobias, Erhardt Sophie, Sellgren Carl M, Cervenka Simon, Borg Jacqueline, Bölte Sven, Fatouros-Bergman Helena
Centre for Psychiatry Research, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, & Stockholm Health Care Services, Region Stockholm, Stockholm, Sweden.
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden.
Heliyon. 2022 Aug 27;8(9):e10424. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10424. eCollection 2022 Sep.
Social dysfunction is a key feature of psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia linked to disability. Less is known about social functioning in the early stages of the disorder and if there is an association to psychotic symptoms.
Investigate if antipsychotic drug-naïve or briefly medicated individuals with first-episode psychosis (FEP), have impaired facial affect recognition (FAR) compared to control participants and if psychotic symptoms are associated with the FAR ability.
Individuals with FEP (n = 67) and control participants (n = 51) performed a computer-aided FAR task on basic emotions. Psychotic symptoms were assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Group performances were compared using age and gender as covariates. The associations between FAR and performance on the subscales of PANSS were analyzed.
Compared to control participants, individuals with FEP were impaired in general FAR (Beta = -2.04 [95 % conf: -3.75/-1.62], p < 0.001) and FAR of negative emotions (Beta = -1.74 [95 % conf: -3.08/-1.22], p < 0.001), driven by difficulties in recognition of anger and disgust. In both groups, there was a pattern of mistaking negative emotions for other negative emotions. There were no significant group differences in FAR of happiness. No significant associations between FAR and psychotic symptoms were observed.
The results indicate that FAR, an underlying mechanism of social functioning is impaired early in the course of psychotic disorders. Current findings do not support the hypothesis that misinterpretation of facial expressions in individuals with FEP underlies or contributes to symptoms of psychosis.
社会功能障碍是精神分裂症等与残疾相关的精神障碍的关键特征。对于该疾病早期阶段的社会功能以及其与精神病症状之间是否存在关联，我们了解较少。
研究首次发作精神病（FEP）且未使用过抗精神病药物或短期用药的个体与对照组相比，是否存在面部表情识别（FAR）受损的情况，以及精神病症状是否与FAR能力相关。
FEP个体（n = 67）和对照组参与者（n = 51）进行了一项关于基本情绪的计算机辅助FAR任务。使用阳性和阴性症状量表（PANSS）评估精神病症状。以年龄和性别作为协变量比较两组的表现。分析FAR与PANSS各分量表表现之间的关联。
与对照组参与者相比，FEP个体在总体FAR（β = -2.04 [95%置信区间：-3.75 / -1.62]，p < 0.001）和负面情绪的FAR（β = -1.74 [95%置信区间：-3.08 / -1.22]，p < 0.001）方面受损，这是由识别愤怒和厌恶的困难所导致的。在两组中，都存在将一种负面情绪误认作其他负面情绪的模式。在幸福情绪的FAR方面，两组之间没有显著差异。未观察到FAR与精神病症状之间存在显著关联。
结果表明，FAR作为社会功能的一种潜在机制，在精神障碍病程早期就受到损害。目前的研究结果不支持FEP个体对面部表情的错误解读是精神病症状的基础或促成因素这一假设。
