Volovik Daria D, Omelchenko Maria A, Ivanova Alyona M
Federal Centre of Brain and Neurotechnologies.
Mental Health Research Center.
Consort Psychiatr. 2021 Mar 20;2(1):8-17. doi: 10.17816/CP65.
Investigating early changes in the emotional sphere within the schizophrenia course is a perspective direction in clinical psychology and psychiatry. Intactness of positive emotions, in particular, humour perception, may be a very important resource for patients. At the same time, humour perception is very sensitive to pathological conditions, such as the fear of being laughed at, known as gelotophobia. Those with gelotophobia perceive laughter as dangerous, rather than pleasant, and they can hardly distinguish between teasing and ridicule. Gelotophobia was confirmed to be expressed among people with mental disorders. Nonetheless, knowledge relating to the fear of being laughed at, was mostly generated among the non-clinical samples.
Thus, the aim of the study was to provide more clinical data on gelotophobia manifestations associated with schizophrenia spectrum disorders; the emotional response and facial expression of patients with gelotophobia were studied, in particular, regarding their perception of humour, including during the early stages of disorders, by comparison with healthy individuals.
n=30 controls and n=32 patients with schizophrenia and with depression with signs of a high clinical risk of psychosis took part. Two short videos, comic and neutral, were shown to the participants, while videotaping their facial expression, followed each by a self-reported measure of emotional responses. Participants also completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the PhoPhiKat30 and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale.
Gelotophobia was significantly higher within the clinical group. It correlated with a lower frequency of grins among the patients during the comic video, while this was not the case in the control group. Gelotophobia was related to state and trait anxiety in both groups, but only in the clinical group did state anxiety increase after watching the comic video. Gelotophobia correlated with alexithymia and was twice higher among the patients compared to the controls.
Thus, gelotophobia has not only quantitative, but also qualitative specifics in patients with schizophrenia, and those with depression with signs of a clinically high risk of psychosis, compared to healthy controls.
研究精神分裂症病程中情感领域的早期变化是临床心理学和精神病学的一个前沿方向。积极情绪的完整性，尤其是对幽默的感知，可能是患者非常重要的资源。同时，幽默感知对病理状况非常敏感，比如害怕被嘲笑，即恐笑症。患有恐笑症的人将笑声视为危险而非愉悦，并且他们很难区分善意玩笑和嘲笑。事实证明，恐笑症在精神障碍患者中有所表现。尽管如此，关于害怕被嘲笑的知识大多来自非临床样本。
因此，本研究的目的是提供更多与精神分裂症谱系障碍相关的恐笑症表现的临床数据；通过与健康个体比较，研究恐笑症患者的情绪反应和面部表情，特别是他们对幽默的感知，包括在疾病早期阶段。
30名对照组参与者以及32名患有精神分裂症和伴有精神病临床高风险迹象的抑郁症患者参与了研究。向参与者展示两段短视频，一段是喜剧视频，一段是中性视频，同时录制他们的面部表情，之后进行自我报告的情绪反应测量。参与者还完成了状态-特质焦虑量表、PhoPhiKat30量表和多伦多述情障碍量表。
临床组的恐笑症程度显著更高。它与患者在观看喜剧视频时咧嘴笑的频率较低相关，而对照组则不然。恐笑症在两组中均与状态焦虑和特质焦虑相关，但只有临床组在观看喜剧视频后状态焦虑增加。恐笑症与述情障碍相关，患者中的恐笑症程度是对照组的两倍。
因此，与健康对照组相比，恐笑症在精神分裂症患者以及伴有精神病临床高风险迹象的抑郁症患者中不仅有数量上的差异，还有质量上的特点。
