Emotional Face Recognition in Bipolar Disorder

Abstract

Introduction

Emotional face recognition is significant for social communication. This is impaired in mood disorders, such as bipolar disorder. Individuals with bipolar disorder lack the ability to perceive facial expressions.

Objectives

To analyse the capacity of emotional face recognition in subjects diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

Aims

To establish a correlation between emotion recognition ability and the evolution of bipolar disease.

Methods

A sample of 24 subjects were analysed in this trial, diagnosed with bipolar disorder (according to ICD-10 criteria), who were hospitalised in the Psychiatry Clinic of Timisoara and monitored in outpatients clinic. Subjects were introduced in the trial based on inclusion/exclusion criteria. The analysed parameters were: socio-demographic (age, gender, education level), the number of relapses, the predominance of manic or depressive episodes, and the ability of identifying emotions (Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test).

Results

Most of the subjects (79.16%) had a low ability to identify emotions, 20.83% had a normal capacity to recognise emotions, and none of them had a high emotion recognition capacity. The positive emotions (love, joy, surprise) were easier recognised, by 75% of the subjects, than the negative ones (anger, sadness, fear). There was no evident difference in emotional face recognition between the individuals with predominance of manic episodes than the ones who had mostly depressive episodes, and between the number of relapses.

Conclusions

The individuals with bipolar disorder have difficulties in identifying facial emotions, but with no obvious correlation between the analysed parameters.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.