The relationship between affect expression and affect recognition in schizophrenia

To examine the relationship between affect expression and affect recognitio n, we assessed 30 clinically stable, medicated schizophrenic inpatients. Af fect expression was assessed using both a standard clinical rating scale (S ANS) and a computerized acoustic voice analysis (VOXCOM). Affect recognitio n was assessed using the Florida Affect Battery (FAB). The schizophrenics' performance on the FAB was impaired, indicating broad deficits in affect re cognition (p<0.05). There were no significant correlations between measures of affect expression and affect recognition, suggesting that the expressiv e impairment in schizophrenia is not related to their ability to discern em otions in others. SANS Inappropriate Affect, however, was negatively correl ated with facial affect recognition (p = 0.001), suggesting that raters' im pression of inappropriate affect may indicate a failure in the process of a ffect attunement. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.