Severely depressed people interpret facial expressions differently

New research from the University of Otago, Christchurch, shows people with severe depression find it harder to interpret facial expressions than healthy people – particularly expressions of disgust.

The study is published in the August issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Researchers Professor Richard Porter and PhD student Katie Douglas asked 68 people who had been diagnosed with severe depression to take part in a facial expression recognition task. They were shown a total of 96 faces displaying 5 basic emotions: angry, happy, sad, fearful and disgusted expressions. The participants were also shown faces displaying neutral expressions. Their performance was compared with a control group of 50 healthy individuals.

The researchers found that the control group were significantly better than the depression group at recognising facial expressions of disgust, indicating impairment in the ability of people with severe depression to recognise disgusted facial expressions.

Professor Porter, of the Department of Psychological Medicine, said: “The specific impairment we found in the ability of people with severe depression to recognise disgusted facial expressions has not been previously reported. However, disgust recognition has been shown to be impaired in patients with Parkinson’s disease who are not taking medication. We know that people with Parkinson's disease don't have enough of a brain chemical called dopamine. It’s possible that the ability to recognise disgust is associated with dopamine dysfunction in people with severe depression as well.

“Another explanation is that people’s emotional processing is affected when they are severely depressed. Admission to a psychiatric hospital is stressful, and patients are removed from their usual social environment and placed in close proximity with other distressed individuals.”

The researchers have called for further research into whether people who are successfully treated for severe depression become better at disgust recognition. If so, this could possibly be used as a marker of treatment outcome for people with major depression.

The study also found differences in the way the two groups interpreted neutral faces. Those people with depression were more likely to interpret neutral faces as sad, and less likely to interpret neutral faces as happy compared to the control group – findings which are consistent with previous research studies.

The study was funded by the Tertiary Education Commission’s Top Achiever Doctoral Scholarship.

ENDS

BUDGET 2012:
Parliament Debate Live - Video Of Budget 2011
Keith Ng Interactive Graphic: How the Budget Breaks Down
BUDGET 2012 - FULL COVERAGE: Reports / Analysis - Press Kit - Reaction (from everybody) - Previews (from everybody) - Pre-Budget Announcements

Gordon Campbell: On the Budget’s Spreadsheet Victories

It wasn’t as if expectations were sky high, exactly. Chances are, it was always more likely that we’d be seeing Bigfoot rampage through the Beehive lock-up than catch a glimpse of a credible growth agenda from this government. More >>

Sludge Budget Report - Short The Dollar! MEMO: To international bankers FROM: C.D. Sludge Please short the dollar! It'll be good for both you and us. And you know you want to. Greexit, Eurogeddon... watch out... flight to quality and all that. Follow your instincts. The NZ Debt Management Office has been so surprised at the unprecedentedly low interest rates that it can borrow at that it has already entirely pre-funded the 2013 fiscal deficit - all $8 billion of it! More >>

Pattrick Smellie Comment: Doddling along the best we can hope forCriticising Budgets for lacking vision or imagination is like shooting fish in a barrel, but even so, this year's Budget again feels like a missed opportunity. Perhaps it's the intrusion of real world needs that means the government couldn't make better political use of the $558.8 million it expects to gather in its first partial asset sale. More >>