Severe childhood trauma and emotion recognition in males and females with first-episode psychosis

Aim Childhood trauma increases social functioning deficits in first-episode psychosis (FEP) and is negatively associated with higher-order social cognitive processes such as emotion recognition (ER). We investigated the relationship between childhood trauma severity and ER capacity, and explored sex as a potential factor given sex differences in childhood trauma exposure. Methods Eighty-three FEP participants (52 males, 31 females) and 69 nonclinical controls (49 males, 20 females) completed the CogState Research Battery. FEP participants completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. A sex x group (FEP, controls) ANOVA examined ER differences and was followed by two-way ANCOVAs investigating sex and childhood trauma severity (none, low, moderate, and severe) on ER and global cognition in FEP. Results FEP participants had significantly lower ER scores than controls (p = .035). No significant sex x group interaction emerged for ER F(3, 147) = .496, p = .438 [95% CI = -1.20-0.57], partial eta(2) = .003. When controlling for age at psychosis onset, a significant interaction emerged in FEP between sex and childhood trauma severity F(3, 71) = 3.173, p = .029, partial eta(2) = .118. Males (n = 9) with severe trauma showed ER deficits compared to females (n = 8) (p = .011 [95% CI = -2.90 to -0.39]). No significant interaction was observed for global cognition F(3, 69) = 2.410, p = .074, partial eta(2) = .095. Conclusions These preliminary findings provide support for longitudinal investigations examining whether trauma severity differentially impacts ER in males and females with FEP.