Subjective disturbance of perception is related to facial affect recognition in schizophrenia

To examine the relationship between facial affect recognition (FAR) and subjective perceptual disturbances (SPDs), we assessed SPDs in 82 patients with DSM-IV schizophrenia (44 with first-episode psychosis [FEP] and 38 with multiple episodes [ME]) using two subscales of the Frankfurt Complaint Questionnaire (FCQ), WAS (simple perception) and WAK (complex perception). Emotional judgment ability was assessed using Ekman and Friesen's FAR task. Impaired recognition of emotion correlated with scores on the WAS but not on the WAK. The association was significant in the entire group and in the ME group. FAR was more impaired in the ME than in the FEP group. Our findings suggest that there is a relationship between SPDs and FAR impairment in schizophrenia, particularly in multiple-episode patients.