S216. REDUCED EMOTIONAL FACIAL EXPRESSION IN SCHIZOPHRENIA – A PROBE INTO THE PHENOMENOLOGY AND RELEVANCE OF EXPRESSIVE NEGATIVE SYMPTOMS

摘要

BackgroundEmotional facial expressions are vital communicative signals and a lack thereof should interfere with successful social interaction. That people with schizophrenia lack emotional facial expression, mostly irrespective of antipsychotic medication, is not only a well-known notion but also backed up by ample evidence. However, a closer look reveals a more complicated picture that implies that maybe only those with expressive negative symptoms (ENS; i.e. blunted affect and alogia) but not those without ENS show reduced facial expressiveness. Furthermore, while the reduction has been found consistently for positive facial expressions, the evidence for negative facial expressions has been mixed. Finally, the social consequences of the reduction are mostly unknown and thus whether or not the reduction actually interferes with social interactions. To address these questions, we tested for the symptom-specificity of reduced positive and negative facial expression (phenomenology) and their social relevance in patients with schizophrenia with versus without ENS.