Severe childhood trauma and emotion recognition in males and females with first-episode psychosis.

Abstract

Childhood trauma increases social functioning deficits in first-episode psychosis (FEP) and is negatively associated with higher-order social cognitive processes such as emotion recognition (ER). We investigated the relationship between childhood trauma severity and ER capacity, and explored sex as a potential factor given sex differences in childhood trauma exposure. Eighty-three FEP participants (52 males, 31 females) and 69 nonclinical controls (49 males, 20 females) completed the CogState Research Battery. FEP participants completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. A sex×group (FEP, controls) ANOVA examined ER differences and was followed by two-way ANCOVAs investigating sex and childhood trauma severity (none, low, moderate, and severe) on ER and global cognition in FEP. FEP participants had significantly lower ER scores than controls (p=.035). No significant sex×group interaction emerged for ER F(3, 147)=.496, p=.438 [95% CI=-1.20-0.57], partial η2 =.003. When controlling for age at psychosis onset, a significant interaction emerged in FEP between sex and childhood trauma severity F(3, 71)=3.173, p=.029, partial η2 =.118. Males (n=9) with severe trauma showed ER deficits compared to females (n=8) (p=.011 [95% CI=-2.90 to -0.39]). No significant interaction was observed for global cognition F(3, 69)=2.410, p=.074, partial η2 =.095. These preliminary findings provide support for longitudinal investigations examining whether trauma severity differentially impacts ER in males and females with FEP.