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Facial emotion recognition and alexithymia in adults with somatoform disorders
Author(s) -
Pedrosa Gil Francisco,
Ridout Nathan,
Kessler Henrik,
Neuffer Michaela,
Schoechlin Claudia,
Traue Harald C.,
Nickel Marius
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
depression and anxiety
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.634
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1520-6394
pISSN - 1091-4269
DOI - 10.1002/da.20456
Subject(s) - alexithymia , psychology , emotion recognition , toronto alexithymia scale , facial expression , clinical psychology , emotion perception , neuroscience , communication
Abstract Objective: The primary aim of this study was to investigate facial emotion recognition in patients with somatoform disorders (SFD). Also of interest was the extent to which concurrent alexithymia contributed to any changes in emotion recognition accuracy. Methods: Twenty patients with SFD and twenty healthy, age, sex and education matched, controls were assessed with the Facially Expressed Emotion Labelling Test of facial emotion recognition and the 26‐item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS‐26). Results: Patients with SFD exhibited elevated alexithymia symptoms relative to healthy controls. Patients with SFD also recognized significantly fewer emotional expressions than did the healthy controls. However, the group difference in emotion recognition accuracy became nonsignificant once the influence of alexithymia was controlled for statistically. Conclusions: This suggests that the deficit in facial emotion recognition observed in the patients with SFD was most likely a consequence of concurrent alexithymia. Impaired facial emotion recognition observed in the patients with SFD could plausibly have a negative influence on these individuals' social functioning. Depression and Anxiety, 2009. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.