Recognition of emotional facial expressions in anxious and nonanxious depression

Abstract

Background Anxiety and depression have each been independently associated with impairments in emotional face recognition. However, little is known about the nature of these impairments when anxiety and depression co-occur. Methods This post-hoc analysis evaluated the relationship between anxiety status and performance on the Emotional Expression Multimorph Task within a clinical sample of individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD). Results Participants with anxious depression (n=14) and nonanxious depression (n=14) completed the Emotional Expression Multimorph Task. Those with anxious depression required greater intensity of emotion to identify both happy (p=.01) and sad (p=.04) facial expressions than those with nonanxious depression. Severity of anxiety also correlated with greater intensity of emotion required to detect sad faces. Contrary to prediction, hypervigilance to angry and fearful facial expressions was not observed in anxious depression. Limitations The present study did not include an anxiety-only group for comparison, and did not assess state anxiety at time of administration. In addition, the extent to which the experimental task correlates with social functioning is not fully understood. Conclusions These findings suggest a diminished sensitivity to happy and sad facial expressions specific to anxious depression, but not a hypervigilance toward threatening facial expressions. Further research on the nature of emotion recognition in anxiety and depression may inform improved clinical interventions.

Emotion sensitivity and self‐reported symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder across the lifespan: A population‐based sample approach

“…Finally, high comorbidity between anxiety and mood disorders is another facet that may influence ES performance. A recent study on recognition of facial expressions in adults with comorbid depression and anxiety ( n = 14) compared to nonanxious depression ( n = 14) demonstrated that diminished sensitivity to happy and sad expressions was specific to anxious depression but not hypervigilance toward threatening facial expressions (Berg et al, ). In our sample, participants completed a GAD‐7 but no measures of depression, limiting our analyses.…”

Smile judgment in substance use disorders and its relationship to interpersonal and emotional functioning: An eye-tracking investigation

“…Additionally, this slowed processing speed has been shown to effect executive functioning (Payne & Smith, 2014;Payne & Thompson, 2015;Sheppard & Vernon, 2008), such as those required to make judgments regarding emotional facial expressions. Depression is also a common comorbid disorder of SUDs (Davis, Uezato, Newell, & Frazier, 2008;Swendsen, & Merikangas, 2000;Currie, 2005), and interestingly, research has shown that those with depressive disorders also have deficits in their ability to accurately interpret negative emotional expressions (Berg, et al, 2016;Demenescu, Kortekaas, Boer, & Aleman, 2010;Csukly, et al, 2010). Future research should query this hypothesis further.…”

Changes in visual size perception in Schizophrenia and Depression

“…A great variety of studies show changes in the visual processing of patients with schizophrenia and depression. Among those are altered perceptual organization (Steven et al, 2020;Panton, Badcock, & Badcock, 2016;Silverstein & Keane, 2011), face perception and recognition (Frassle et al, 2020;Marosi, Fodor, & Csukly, 2019;Stroud et al, 2018;Chen & Ekstrom, 2017;Berg et al, 2016;Maher, Ekstrom, Holt, Ongur, & Chen, 2016;McBain, Norton, & Chen, 2010;Silverstein et al, 2014;Vakhrusheva, et al, 2014), Psicol. Pesqui.…”