AFFECT RECOGNITION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA - A SYNTHESIS OF FINDINGS ACROSS 3 STUDIES

THE results of three studies of affect recognition in schizophrenia, a ll using the same measures (the Face Emotion Identification Test, the Face Emotion Discrimination Test, and the Test of Facial Recognition), are reviewed. The studies differed on two important subject character istics: patient chronicity and medication status. One study examined c hronically ill, unmedicated patients (Kerr and Neale 1993); a second s tudy included chronically ill, medicated patients (Mueser et al. 1996) ; and a third study examined acutely ill, medicated patients (Bellack, Blanchard and Mueser 1996). Results across the three studies suggest that chronicity of the illness, but not medication status, was related to poor performance on the affect recognition tests. Furthermore, chr onically ill patients tended to perform poorly on the control task (th e Test of Facial Recognition) as well as the affect perception tasks, suggesting a generalized impairment in facial perception. The implicat ions of the findings for research on social perception are considered, as well as for interventions designed to improve social competence in schizophrenia.