Efficacy of theatre activities in facial expression categorization in schizophrenia

Publication date: Available online 10 September 2018Source: The Arts in PsychotherapyAuthor(s): Sonia Mele, Raffaella Bivi, Linda Borra, Vincenzo Callegari, Stefano Caracciolo, Stefano Tugnoli, Laila CraigheroAbstractThe aim of the study was to assess the efficacy of theatre activities in improving facial expression categorization in schizophrenia by means of a controlled psychophysical experiment performed on matched groups of participants, and appropriate statistical analyses on collected data. In two experiments we submitted participants to a four alternative labelling task of pictures randomly taken from four morphed continua between two emotional facial expressions. Results of Experiment 1 showed that the identification rate was specifically lower for patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders (SSD) than for matched controls for the response fear, and less dramatically lower for the response sadness. Results of Experiment 2 showed that the specific impairment in the identification of fear expression improved in SSD patients with experience of theatre activities with respect to matched SSD patients without theatre activities experience. Present results suggest that theatre activities may be included in “broad-based” social cognitive training programs for those diagnosed with schizophrenia, and that it may be considered an intervention directly affecting social cognition, given its effects in the domain of facial expression recognition.
Source: Arts in Psychotherapy - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research