Facial expression recognition in older adults with depression: a meta-analytic review

This study investigates facial expression recognition accuracy in older adults with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) versus healthy older adults focusing on differences in recognizing basic emotions: sadness, happiness, surprise, fear, disgust, and anger.

This meta-analysis reviews nine studies involving 414 participants with MDD and 487 healthy controls, exploring moderators like emotion type, symptom severity, patient status, diagnostic method, stimulus type, duration, and incongruent recognitions.

Older adults with depressive symptoms showed reduced recognition of happiness, sadness, and disgust compared with healthy controls, while recognition of fear and anger did not differ significantly. Sensitivity analyses indicated that heterogeneity in happiness, sadness, and disgust recognition was driven by a few influential studies, and meta-regression revealed that methodological differences influenced outcomes.

Older adults with depressive symptoms show selective impairments in recognizing positive and negative facial expressions, while recognition of fear and anger appears preserved. These findings highlight the need to consider methodological differences in assessing emotion recognition and may inform interventions targeting socio-emotional functioning in late-life depression.