Facial emotion recognition in adolescents with psychotic-like experiences: a school-based sample from the general population

• Published in: Psychological medicine Vol. 42; no. 10; pp. 2157 - 2166
• Main Authors: Roddy, S., Tiedt, L., Kelleher, I., Clarke, M. C., Murphy, J., Rawdon, C., Roche, R. A. P., Calkins, M. E., Richard, J. A., Kohler, C. G., Cannon, M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge, UK Cambridge University Press 01.10.2012
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Biological and medical sciences; Child; Child & adolescent psychiatry; Children; Cross-Sectional Studies; Emotion recognition; Emotions; Facial Expression; Female; Humans; Interventions; Ireland - epidemiology; Male; Medical sciences; Mental disorders; Prospective Studies; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychometrics; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychoses; Psychotic Disorders - epidemiology; Psychotic Disorders - psychology; Recognition (Psychology); Risk factors; Schizophrenia; Self Report; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teenagers; Ireland; psychotic symptoms; facial emotion recognition; psychotic-like experience; Adolescent; child; Human; Affect affectivity; Emotion emotionality; School environment; Psychosis; Symptomatology; Face; Child; Facial expression; Recognition
• ISSN: 0033-2917; 1469-8978
• DOI: 10.1017/S0033291712000311

Psychotic symptoms, also termed psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) in the absence of psychotic disorder, are common in adolescents and are associated with increased risk of schizophrenia-spectrum illness in adulthood. At the same time, schizophrenia is associated with deficits in social cognition, with deficits particularly documented in facial emotion recognition (FER). However, little is known about the relationship between PLEs and FER abilities, with only one previous prospective study examining the association between these abilities in childhood and reported PLEs in adolescence. The current study was a cross-sectional investigation of the association between PLEs and FER in a sample of Irish adolescents. The Adolescent Psychotic-Like Symptom Screener (APSS), a self-report measure of PLEs, and the Penn Emotion Recognition-40 Test (Penn ER-40), a measure of facial emotion recognition, were completed by 793 children aged 10-13 years. Children who reported PLEs performed significantly more poorly on FER (β=-0.03, p=0.035). Recognition of sad faces was the major driver of effects, with children performing particularly poorly when identifying this expression (β=-0.08, p=0.032). The current findings show that PLEs are associated with poorer FER. Further work is needed to elucidate causal relationships with implications for the design of future interventions for those at risk of developing psychosis.