[Facial emotion perception in schizophrenia: relationships with cognitive and social functioning].

UNLABELLED Evidence suggests that facial emotion recognition is disturbed in schizophrenic patients however its nature has not been elucidated. Affect recognition is an important aspect of psychosocial functioning. AIM In this study we assessed recognition of facial emotional expression in schizophrenic patients and its relationship with selected clinical and neuropsychological variables as well as with social functioning. METHOD We used Penn Emotional Facial Recognition (ER40) task, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test WCST, Social Functioning Scale. Twenty-three patients who met the DSM-IV criteria for schizophrenia -paranoid type, hospitalised at the Department of Adult Psychiatry University of Medical Sciences in Poznań, Poland were involved in the study. The control group of healthy volunteers matched for gender and age was included. RESULTS Schizophrenic patients performed worse on emotion recognition test than the control group. The relationship between results of ER-40 and WCST and severity of negative symptoms was found. CONCLUSION Cognitive dysfunctions and disturbances of facial emotion recognition are closely linked in patients with schizophrenia, however casual relationships and relation to symptomatology remains unclear and further studies are necessary.