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Abstract
Introduction. The aim of this study was to investigate the recognition of facial expressions in patients with a generalised social anxiety disorder. It is well documented that in different psychiatric disorders (e.g., depression, schizophrenia) patients may show an altered processing of emotions. However, in generalised social anxiety, emotion recognition has not been studied.
Methods. 24 Patients with generalised social anxiety disorder and 26 healthy controls, matched on age, education, and sex were included. The task entailed the emotional labelling of faces with different facial expressions (happiness, fear, disgust, sadness, surprise, anger) presented in different intensities. Subjects were asked to make a forced‐choice response.
Results. These revealed that patients with a generalised social anxiety disorder were less sensitive for the negative facial expressions of anger and disgust compared to the control group.
Conclusions. This deficit could play a role in the development and/or the maintaining of the social anxiety. Both explanations are discussed.
Notes
Part of the data was presented at the First Congress of the European Neuropsychological Societies in Modena, Italy (April 2004). This research was supported by grant 490‐22‐203 from the Dutch Organisation of Scientific Research (NWO). Roy Kessels was supported by an NWO‐VENI research grant (No. 451‐02‐037) and Jack van Honk was supported by an Innovational Research Grant (No. 016‐005‐060) by NWO.