Facial emotion recognition in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

ABSTRACT

@#Objective: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease of the central nervous system and the most common cause of disability among young adults. In addition to physical and cognitive disturbances, MS patients also have emotional processing deficits. Despite the rich knowledge available about cognitive impairments, little is known about emotion recognition in patients with relapsing-remitting MS (RRMS), despite the fact that it plays a key role in social behavior. The aim of our study was to investigate facial emotion recognition in patients with RRMS, compared with healthy controls. Methods: Facial emotion recognition abilities were studied in a homogeneous group of 51 RRMS patients and 51 healthy controls, using the Persian version of the Florida Affect Battery. We controlled both groups for physical symptoms, anxiety, depression and social dysfunction, using general health questionnaire (GHQ-28). Patients and healthy controls were matched according to age and gender. Early stage of the disease was defined as being diagnosed with RRMS and having an EDSS of 4 or lower. Results: MS patients performed as well as healthy controls in facial identity discrimination and facial emotion discrimination tasks, but showed significantly less performance in other subtests that required emotion recognition in comparison with healthy controls. Conclusions: Facial emotion recognition is impaired at early stages of MS. MS patients have problems in their emotional processing system. Deficits in facial emotion recognition merit attention because they might negatively influence interpersonal relationships and quality of life in MS patients.