Bošnjak, D. 1, Makarić P. 1, Rojnić Kuzman, M. 2 Emotional recognition during the course of schizophrenia Bošnjak, D. 1, Makarić P. 1, Rojnić Kuzman, M. 2 1University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče, Zagreb, Croatia 2Zagreb University Hospital Centre, Department of Psychiatry, Croatia INTRODUCTION: Emotional recognition (ER) refers to the capacity to perceive, interpret and regulate responses to emotional information (Green et al., 2008). Much of this information is communicated to us in facial expressions (Fusar-Poli et al., 2009). The ability of adequate emotion identification alleviates making emotional relationships and effective communication. Patients suffering from schizophrenia have deficits in emotion recognition, that leads to impaired social and occupational functioning. However, little research has been undertaken with first-episode psychosis. The aim of our study is to investigate the pattern of ER deficit during the course of schizophrenia. METHODS: Table 1. Sample Characteristics Our sample consisted of 3 gender- matched groups, each consiting of 50 people: healthy control (HC), first episode psychosis (FEP) and multiepisode schizophrenia (MEP) group. FEP and MEP patients were hospitalized or in outpatient care in KBC Zagreb and University Psychiatric Hospital Vrapče since the year 2014, diagnosed using DSM- V criteria for schizophrenia (schizophreniform disorder). After clinical interview and psychopatology evaluation with Positive & Negative Syndrome Scale, both patient groups underwent ER assesement consisting of Penn emotion recognition task and iFEEL Pictures, and were administered self- evaluating scales: Word Health Organisation Quality of Life, Upitnik o suicidalnom razmišljanju i ponašanju , The Barratt Impulsivness Scale, Agression Questionnaire, Calgary Depression Scale, Parental Bonding Instrument. HC group was assessed only with ER tasks. HC (N=50) FEP (N=50) SCH (N=50) AGE *21-26 *18-53 *28-62 GENDER (male) 31 EMPLOYED - 18 11 EDUCATION ES 5 4 HS 35 37 CO 10 9 SINGLE 41 38 CHILDREN 6 15 PANSS P **29,70 ± 7,83 **19,68 ± 5,64 N ***24,20 ± 6,35 ***24,64 ± 5,53 G **52,94 ± 10,11 **38,98 ± 7,78 O **106,84 ± 21,05 **83,30 ± 14,58 ES – elementary school; HS – high school; CO – college or higher education; P- positive, N- negative, G-general, O- overall *range: minimum-maximum; **mean ± standard deviation; p<0,01; ***p>0,05 RESULTS: Table 2. Differences in ER between groups Accurate recognition of each of the 5 emotions showed positive correllation with recognition of other 4 (p<0,01). Fear recognition positively correlated with frequency of verbalising shyness during iFEEL taks, and negatively with happiness (p<0,01). Recognition of anger, fear, neutral and sadness were associated with lower results on AQ verbal scale; fear and sadness on AQ hostility scale; fear, neutral and sadness with AQ physical scale (p<0,05). Suicidality was in positive correlation with fear recognition (p<0,01). Besides negative correlation of recognizing happiness with physical health domain (p<0,01), other ER tasks showed no correlation with quality of life scale. HC (N=50) FEP (N=50) SCH (N=50) Mean Rank PENN Anger 92,61 73,40 60,49 PENN Fear 98,82 76,80 50,88 PENN Happy 91,52 72,95 62,03 PENN Neutral 79,36 86,27 60,87 PENN Sad 100,78 69,40 56,32 IFEEL 1 93,77 74,53 58,20 IFEEL 2 71,47 98,08 56,95 IFEEL3 58,90 70,62 96,98 IFEEL 11 86,33 58,44 81,73 p<0,01 CONCLUSION: Results of our pilot research showed that deficits in ER exists at the beginning of the illness and progress during its course, which puts ER as a possible permanent trait of schizophrenia. Contacts: dina.bosnjak@gmail.com; porin.makaric@gmail.com; mrojnic@gmail.com This work was funded by the grant of the Croatian Science Foundation No UIP‐2014‐09‐1245 Biomarkers in schizophrenia – integration of complementary methods in longitudinal follow up of first episode psychosis patients