Facial Affective Expressions In Schizophrenia

Facial expressiveness is known to be reduced in schizophrenia. Twenty-four videorecorded interviews were conducted with eight patients diagnosed with schizophrenia. Each patient was interviewed weekly three times. 48 selected sequences where the patients were speaking about psychotic experiences were scored for facial affective behaviour with Emotion Facial Action Coding System (EMFACS). The results suggest that facial affectivity in these patients is primarily dominated by the negative emotions of disgust and, to a lesser extent, contempt and implies that this seems to be a fairly stable feature.