ABSTRACT
This paper describes the influence of neuroleptic therapy on facial action in drug-naive schizophrenics. In a comparative study of medicated and unmedicated schizophrenic patients, the coordinates of 12 small light-reflecting points, attached to subjects' faces, were computer-recorded and analyzed automatically during a semi-standardized clinical interview. In addition, facial activity in videotaped interviews was coded using the Facial Action Coding System (FACS). Each sample group comprised of eight patients with the DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria "schizophrenia" or "schizophreniform disorder". Subjects were studied on two occasions, one shortly after admission to the hospital, the other three weeks later. Group 1 was unmedicated during the first session, whereas group 2 was medicated throughout the study. Three weeks after the start of medication, at the second interview, both recording methods showed a reduction in facial activity and facial expression across all subjects in group 1. The facial action of patients in group 2, however, remained unchanged.
Subject(s)
Antipsychotic Agents/pharmacology , Facial Expression , Schizophrenia/physiopathology , Adult , Analysis of Variance , Female , Humans , Male , Psychiatric Status Rating Scales , Schizophrenic PsychologyABSTRACT
Different expert-rating scales (GAS, BPRS, SANS, Ham-D) were applied to assess the psychopathological findings in 40 schizophrenic and 40 depressive patients (classified according to DSM III-R guidelines). The data demonstrated that the schizophrenic sample did not display acute psychotic or negative symptoms as a specific symptomatology, and that depressive mood was not a specific symptom of the depressive sample. Hence, these types of research tools should mainly be used as a global measurement for determining the severity of psychiatric disorders, or for monitoring the progress of individual patients in order to illustrate disparate psychopathological qualities in nosologically different groups.
