Improved facial affect recognition in patients with first-episode psychosis.

Abstract

The present study aimed at assessing whether impaired facial affect recognition (FAR) in patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP) would improve after a brief intervention targeting FAR specifically. Thirty-five outpatients and 38 healthy controls were administered an intervention which involved training to recognize emotional information, conveyed by changes in facial features. Using a pre- and post-intervention design, two measurements of FAR were conducted using an experimental procedure with alternative sets of stimuli. We found improved overall FAR performance in both participant groups with marked effects in recognizing anger, disgust and fear. Patients' post-intervention performance was comparable to healthy participants' baseline performance. The present improvement in facial affects recognition in FEP patients, despite only somewhat impaired, emphasizes the importance of early targeted interventions for FAR in psychosis. Further research is needed to assess whether this improvement will generalize to global social functioning.