Identification and Perceived Intensity of Facial Expressions of Emotion in Bipolar Disorder and Major Depression.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine the accuracy in identifying facial expressions and the perceived intensity of emotions of happiness, sadness, disgust, anger, fear, surprise in bipolar disorder (BD), and major depressive disorder (MDD). METHOD: Ninety-three adult participants (n = 30 BD, 80% female; n = 18 MDD, 72.2% female; n = 45 C, 46.7% female) completed a facial expression task. Stimuli in the task were first presented for 200 ms, followed by 500 ms, and 1000 ms. Participants were asked to identify the emotion expressed by each face and judge its intensity on a Likert scale. Accuracy and perceived intensity of expressions corresponding to each emotion were compared between groups using a repeated measures ANCOVA, with length of stimulus presentation as a within-subjects variable. RESULTS: Expressions of sadness were rated more intensely by patients with BD, and expressions of anger by those with MDD, than control participants. Subjects with BD were less accurate than control participants in identifying expressions of disgust. An interaction effect was also identified for the detection of sadness, whereby patients with BD were significantly less accurate when expressions were shown for 200 ms. CONCLUSIONS: The increased intensity with which emotions were perceived by patients with BD and MDD has important repercussions for patient functioning and clinical practice. A tendency to overestimate the intensity of certain facial expressions in mood disorders may lead patients to interpret social cues erroneously and engage in dysfunctional behaviors and cognitive patterns. Future studies should focus on this variable in addition to the accuracy of emotion identification.

Validation of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C) in a sample of Brazilian children.

The purpose of the present study was to examine the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C), an instrument developed in the United States and applied to a sample of Brazilian schoolchildren. The process included the translation of the original material from English into Portuguese by two bilingual psychiatrists and a back translation by a bilingual physician. Both the front and back translations were revised by a bilingual child psychiatrist. The study was performed using a cross-sectional design and the Portuguese version of the SPAI-C was applied to a sample of 1954 children enrolled in 3rd to 8th grade attending 2 private and 11 public schools. Eighty-one subjects were excluded due to an incomplete questionnaire and 2 children refused to participate. The final sample consisted of 1871 children, 938 girls (50.1%) and 933 boys (49.8%), ranging in age from 9 to 14 years. The majority of the students were Caucasian (89.0%) and the remainder were African-Brazilian (11.0%). The Pearson product-moment correlation showed that the two-week test-retest reliability coefficient was r = 0.780 and Cronbach's alpha was 0.946. The factor structure was almost similar to that reported in previous studies. The results regarding the internal consistency, the test-retest reliability and the factor structure were similar to the findings obtained in studies performed on English speaking children. The present study showed that the Portuguese language version of SPAI-C is a reliable and valid measure of social anxiety for Brazilian children.

Validation of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C) in a sample of Brazilian children

The purpose of the present study was to examine the factor structure and psychometric properties of the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory for Children (SPAI-C), an instrument developed in the United States and applied to a sample of Brazilian schoolchildren. The process included the translation of the original material from English into Portuguese by two bilingual psychiatrists and a back translation by a bilingual physician. Both the front and back translations were revised by a bilingual child psychiatrist. The study was performed using a cross-sectional design and the Portuguese version of the SPAI-C was applied to a sample of 1954 children enrolled in 3rd to 8th grade attending 2 private and 11 public schools. Eighty-one subjects were excluded due to an incomplete questionnaire and 2 children refused to participate. The final sample consisted of 1871 children, 938 girls (50.1 percent) and 933 boys (49.8 percent), ranging in age from 9 to 14 years. The majority of the students were Caucasian (89.0 percent) and the remainder were African-Brazilian (11.0 percent). The Pearson product-moment correlation showed that the two-week test-retest reliability coefficient was r = 0.780 and Cronbach's alpha was 0.946. The factor structure was almost similar to that reported in previous studies. The results regarding the internal consistency, the test-retest reliability and the factor structure were similar to the findings obtained in studies performed on English speaking children. The present study showed that the Portuguese language version of SPAI-C is a reliable and valid measure of social anxiety for Brazilian children.