Emotion recognition in patients with schizophrenia: The role of sex

Abstract

Background: Despite the abundant research on emotion recognition in schizophrenia, there are still some issues about which there is no conclusive data. The present study examined one these issues: The role that sex plays in emotion recognition. Method: The sample consisted of 440 participants, 220 patients with schizophrenia and 220 controls. Measures of the six basic emotions, psychopathology, and cognitive functioning were taken. The data were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance. Results: Controls perceived all emotions, except happiness, better than patients. In the patient group three main results were obtained: 1) men recognized disgust and neutral expressions better than women; 2) happiness and sadness were better recognized on female faces, while disgust and neutral expressions were better recognized on male faces; and 3) a signifi cant interaction was seen between the stimulus sex and the participant sex only for the fear emotion. Conclusions: The results obtained support the hypothesis that defi cits in the recognition of emotions is a core feature of schizophrenia that affects both men and women to the same extent. There is no clear pattern of interaction between the sex of the perceiver and the sex of the photograph used as a stimulus.