SU109. Trying but not Succeeding: An Ecological Momentary Assessment Evaluation of Emotion Regulation in Schizophrenia

Abstract

Abstract Background: Prior studies using self-report questionnaires and laboratory-based methods suggest that schizophrenia (SZ) is characterized by abnormalities in emotion regulation (ie, using strategies to increase or decrease the frequency, duration, or intensity of negative emotion). However, it is unclear whether these abnormalities reflect poor emotion regulation effort or adequate effort, but limited effectiveness. It is also unclear whether dysfunction results primarily from one of the 3 stages of the emotion regulation process: identification, selection, or implementation. Methods: The current study used Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) to address these questions in the context of everyday activities. Participants included 28 outpatients diagnosed with SZ and 28 demographically matched healthy controls (CN) who completed 6 days of EMA reports of in-the-moment emotional experience, emotion regulation strategy use, and context. Results: Results indicated that SZ patients demonstrated adequate emotion regulation effort, but poor effectiveness. Abnormalities were observed at each of the 3 stages of the emotion regulation process. At the identification stage, SZ initiated emotion regulation efforts at a lower threshold of negative emotion. At the selection stage, SZ selected more strategies than CN and strategies attempted were less contextually appropriate. At the implementation stage, moderate to high levels of effort were ineffective at decreasing negative emotion. Conclusion: Findings suggest that although SZ attempts to control their emotions using various strategies, often applying more effort than CN, these efforts are unsuccessful; emotion regulation failures may result from abnormalities at the identification, selection, and implementation stages.