Emotion recognition deficits in eating disorders are explained by co-occurring alexithymia.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Brewer R
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4448790 | biostudies-other | 2015 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other
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Project description:Background: Facial emotion recognition is impaired in addiction and personality disorders. Dysfunctional personality beliefs reflect negative interpersonal schemas that may underpin emotion recognition deficits. We aimed to examine the association between personality beliefs and emotion recognition among participants with cocaine use disorder including those with comorbid personality disorders. Methods: We recruited 70 participants with cocaine use disorder aged between 19 and 52 who had used 14 g of cocaine over 4.8 years on average. Thirty-eight participants had an additional personality disorder (11 Borderline, 7 Histrionic, 5 Antisocial, 10 Avoidant, and 5 Obsessive-Compulsive). Dysfunctional beliefs were indicated with the Personality Belief Questionnaire, and facial emotion recognition was indicated with the Ekman's Test. We applied correlations/multiple regressions to test the relationship between beliefs and emotion recognition. Results: Personality beliefs reflecting paranoid, borderline, and antisocial schemas were negatively associated with emotion recognition. Antisocial beliefs were associated with poorer recognition of fear, and paranoid beliefs with poorer recognition of disgust. Antisocial beliefs were significantly associated with emotion recognition after adjusting for cocaine use. Conclusion: Dysfunctional personality beliefs are associated with poorer emotion recognition in cocaine addiction. Personality-related negative schemas about the self and others can impact social cognition and interaction during cocaine treatment.
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Project description:Background:Neurobiological studies suggest that deficits in emotion recognition are common phenomena in alexithymia. Thus, effective treatments for alexithymia often include skills training in the domain of emotion recognition. Given that smartphone-based interventions (SBIs) offering skills training have been shown to be promising adjuncts to psychological treatments, a blended SBI facilitating the training of emotional skills might be effective in reducing alexithymia. Methods:In this pilot trial, N?=?29 individuals reporting elevated alexithymia levels were randomly assigned to a blended SBI including a psychoeducation session and 14?days of training with the mindtastic alexithymia app (MT-ALEX) or a psychoeducation-only control condition. Primary outcome was emotion recognition skills as assessed in a computer-based two-choice task paradigm. Results:On average, participating in the SBI was associated with a significant increase in computer-assessed emotion recognition skills compared to the control condition (d?=?0.97). Conclusions:Study findings provide preliminary evidence that SBIs can improve emotion recognition skills in alexithymic individuals. Research using larger samples and targeting clinical populations is necessary to further evaluate the potential of MT-ALEX.
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Project description:Adolescents diagnosed with Restrictive Eating Disorders (REDs) are at risk for alexithymia. REDs patients' families show dysfunctional interactive patterns, and childhood family environment influences alexithymia development. We aimed to assess the relationship between family dysfunctional interactive patterns and patients' alexithymia in a sample of adolescents diagnosed with REDs. Forty-five patients and their parents were enrolled. They participated in the clinical version of the Lausanne Triadic Play (LTPc), a standardized observational procedure to assess family functioning. We used the self-report questionnaire Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) to assess patients' alexithymia. The TAS-20 provides a multi-factorial measure of patients' alexithymia: Difficulty in Identifying Feelings, DIF; Difficulty in Describing Feelings, DDF; Externally-oriented Thinking, EOT) and a total (TOT) score. DDF and EOT scores were significantly higher than DIF score. Patients' families showed dysfunctional interactive patterns, with a predominance of collusive alliance. Patients from families characterized by collusive alliance had higher TOT scores compared to counterparts from families exhibiting a different interactive dysfunctional pattern. In families characterized by a collusive triadic alliance, the dysfunctional interactive pattern was linked with the risk of alexithymia in patients with REDs. Assessment of family relationships should be included in the routine consultation with adolescent patients affected by REDs.
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Project description:BackgroundProblems with social-emotional processing are known to be an important contributor to the development and maintenance of eating disorders (EDs). Diminished facial communication of emotion has been frequently reported in individuals with anorexia nervosa (AN). Less is known about facial expressivity in bulimia nervosa (BN) and in people who have recovered from AN (RecAN). This study aimed to pilot the use of computerised facial expression analysis software to investigate emotion expression across the ED spectrum and recovery in a large sample of participants.Method297 participants with AN, BN, RecAN, and healthy controls were recruited. Participants watched film clips designed to elicit happy or sad emotions, and facial expressions were then analysed using FaceReader.ResultsThe finding mirrored those from previous work showing that healthy control and RecAN participants expressed significantly more positive emotions during the positive clip compared to the AN group. There were no differences in emotion expression during the sad film clip.DiscussionThese findings support the use of computerised methods to analyse emotion expression in EDs. The findings also demonstrate that reduced positive emotion expression is likely to be associated with the acute stage of AN illness, with individuals with BN showing an intermediate profile.
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