Affect recognition in schizophrenia: impairments and treatment

Abstract

Objective

Impairments in affect recognition are well known in schizophrenia. Such impairments are known to be a trait-like characteristic in schizophrenia mostly unaffected by traditional treatment. Moreover they seem to play a crucial role in patients' poor social functioning. The present study should contribute to the still open question of treatment options for these impairments.

Methods

A special Training of Affect Recognition (TAR) was evaluated using a pre-post-control group design with three groups of about n=25 partly remitted schizophrenia patients each. To control for nonspecific effects of implicit cognitive training, TAR was compared with a Cognitive Remediation Training (CRT) aiming at improvement of basic neurocognitive functioning. To control for nonspecific effects the two active training groups were compared with a control group without additional training (CG).

Results

Patients under TAR showed an improvement in facial affect recognition, with recognition performance after training approaching the level of healthy controls from former studies. Patients under CRT and those without training (CG) did not show improvements in affect recognition, though patients under CRT improved in some memory functions.

Conclusions

Improvements in disturbed facial affect recognition in schizophrenia patients is not obtainable with a traditional cognitive remediation program like CRT, but needs a functional specific training like the newly developed TAR.