Abstract
BackgroundRecognition of others' emotions is an important aspect of interpersonal communication. In major depression, a significant emotion recognition impairment has been reported. It remains unclear whether the ability to recognize emotion from facial expressions is also impaired in anxiety disorders. There is a need to review and integrate the published literature on emotional expression recognition in anxiety disorders and major depression.Methodology/Principal FindingsA detailed literature search was used to identify studies on explicit emotion recognition in patients with anxiety disorders and major depression compared to healthy participants. Eighteen studies provided sufficient information to be included. The differences on emotion recognition impairment between patients and controls (Cohen's d) with corresponding confidence intervals were computed for each study. Over all studies, adults with anxiety disorders had a significant impairment in emotion recognition (d = −0.35). In children with anxiety disorders no significant impairment of emotion recognition was found (d = −0.03). Major depression was associated with an even larger impairment in recognition of facial expressions of emotion (d = −0.58).Conclusions/SignificanceResults from the current analysis support the hypothesis that adults with anxiety disorders or major depression both have a deficit in recognizing facial expression of emotions, and that this deficit is more pronounced in major depression than in anxiety.
Highlights
The ability to identify and interpret facial expressions of emotion is essential in human communication and social interaction
Characteristics of the included studies and data are provided in Table S1(online supporting information, references [30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39]) for the studies on anxiety disorders and Table S2 for the studies on major depression
The purpose of this study was to investigate whether and to what extent anxiety disorders and major depression are associated with impaired recognition of emotion in others
Summary
The ability to identify and interpret facial expressions of emotion is essential in human communication and social interaction. Studies in subjects with emotional disorders, such as major depression and anxiety, aim to understand the relation between emotional processing and psychopathology. Emotional dysfunctions (e.g., difficulty in understanding emotions, difficulty in changing how one feels) are related to poor social functioning and can be considered as important features of psychopathology [4,5]. Psychopathological variables may explain the variance in the accuracy of recognition of facial expression of emotions. A significant emotion recognition impairment has been reported. It remains unclear whether the ability to recognize emotion from facial expressions is impaired in anxiety disorders. There is a need to review and integrate the published literature on emotional expression recognition in anxiety disorders and major depression
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