Can childhood trauma influence facial emotion recognition independently from a diagnosis of severe mental disorder?

Introduction: Facial emotion recognition (FER) is a fundamental component in social interaction. We know that FER is disturbed in patients with severe mental disorder (SMD), as well as those with a history of childhood trauma.

Material and methods: We intend to analyze the possible relationship between the existence of trauma in childhood irrespective of a SMD, measured by the CTQ scale and facial expression recognition, in a sample of three types of subjects (n=321): healthy controls (n=179), patients with BPD (n=69) and patients with a first psychotic episode (n=73). Likewise, clinical and socio-demographic data were collected. The relationship was analyzed by a technique of multivariate regression adjusting for sex, age, IQ, current consumption of drugs and group to which the subject belonged.

Results: Sexual and/or physical trauma in childhood related independently to the existence of SMD with a worse total FER ratio, as well as to a worse rate of recognition in expressions of happiness. Furthermore, the subjects with a history of childhood trauma attributed expressions of anger and fear more frequently to neutral and happy faces, irrespective of other variables.

Conclusions: The existence of trauma in childhood seems to influence the ability of subjects to recognize facial expressions, irrespective of SMD. Trauma is a preventable factor with specific treatment; therefore, attention should be paid to the existence of this background in clinical populations.