David Baxter PhD
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Impaired emotional intelligence linked to poor function in schizophrenia
By Andrew Czyzewski
02 October 2008
Schizophr Res 2008; Advance online publication
Schizophrenia patients display a range of impaired emotional processing abilities, which are linked with negative symptoms of the disease and poor community functioning, study results suggest.
The researchers call for intervention programs to ameliorate such impairments, adding that "patients' difficulty in processing emotion could lead to inappropriate responding, which might hinder their ability to execute the independent living/self-care task requirements."
Prior studies on emotion in schizophrenia patients have focused almost exclusively on emotion perception, that is, the ability to detect emotion information from other individuals based on facial expressions and vocal inflections.
However, some researchers have proposed a broader model of 'emotional intelligence' comprising not only emotion perception, but the understanding, regulation, and use of emotions.
To validate this concept, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) has recently been developed.
"Although promising in its potential, we know almost nothing about the utility of the MSCEIT for assessing emotion processing in individuals with severe mental illnesses," study co-author Kimmy Kee (University of California, Los Angeles, USA) and collegues comment in the journal Schizophrenia Research.
They therefore assessed 50 schizophrenia outpatients and 39 mentally healthy controls using the MSCEIT.
Analysis revealed that schizophrenia patients performed significantly worse than controls on the total MSCEIT score, and on three of the four subtests - Identifying, Understanding, and Managing Emotions - while poorer use of emotions was only significant at the trend level.
In addition, MSCEIT scores significantly correlated with higher scores for negative and disorganized symptoms, as well as worse community functioning.
Kee and colleagues comment: "Although previous studies of emotion processing in schizophrenia have focused almost exclusively on the perception of emotion, the current results suggest that patients display a considerably broader range of impairment across multiple emotion processing abilities."
Abstract
By Andrew Czyzewski
02 October 2008
Schizophr Res 2008; Advance online publication
Schizophrenia patients display a range of impaired emotional processing abilities, which are linked with negative symptoms of the disease and poor community functioning, study results suggest.
The researchers call for intervention programs to ameliorate such impairments, adding that "patients' difficulty in processing emotion could lead to inappropriate responding, which might hinder their ability to execute the independent living/self-care task requirements."
Prior studies on emotion in schizophrenia patients have focused almost exclusively on emotion perception, that is, the ability to detect emotion information from other individuals based on facial expressions and vocal inflections.
However, some researchers have proposed a broader model of 'emotional intelligence' comprising not only emotion perception, but the understanding, regulation, and use of emotions.
To validate this concept, the Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) has recently been developed.
"Although promising in its potential, we know almost nothing about the utility of the MSCEIT for assessing emotion processing in individuals with severe mental illnesses," study co-author Kimmy Kee (University of California, Los Angeles, USA) and collegues comment in the journal Schizophrenia Research.
They therefore assessed 50 schizophrenia outpatients and 39 mentally healthy controls using the MSCEIT.
Analysis revealed that schizophrenia patients performed significantly worse than controls on the total MSCEIT score, and on three of the four subtests - Identifying, Understanding, and Managing Emotions - while poorer use of emotions was only significant at the trend level.
In addition, MSCEIT scores significantly correlated with higher scores for negative and disorganized symptoms, as well as worse community functioning.
Kee and colleagues comment: "Although previous studies of emotion processing in schizophrenia have focused almost exclusively on the perception of emotion, the current results suggest that patients display a considerably broader range of impairment across multiple emotion processing abilities."
Abstract
