Facial emotion recognition in schizophrenia: An exploratory study on the role of comorbid alcohol and substance use disorders and COMT Val158Met

Objectives: To explore whether facial emotion recognition (FER), impaired in both schizophrenia and alcohol and substance use disorders (AUDs/SUDs), is additionally compromised among comorbid subjects, also considering the role of catechol‐O‐methyltransferase (COMT) Val158Met. Methods: We conducted a cross‐sectional study, randomly recruiting 67 subjects with a DSM‐IV‐TR diagnosis of schizophrenia, and rigorously assessing AUDs/SUDs and COMT Val158Met polymorphism. FER was assessed using the Ekman 60 Faces Test‐ EK‐60F. Results: As a whole, the sample scored significantly lower than normative data on EK‐60F. However, subjects with comorbid AUDs/SUDs did not perform worse on EK‐60F than those without, who had a better performance on EK‐60F if they carried the COMT Val/Met variant. Conclusions: This study is the first to date examining the impact of AUDs/SUDs and COMT variants on FER in an epidemiologically representative sample of subjects with schizophrenia. Our findings do not suggest an additional impairment from comorbid AUDs/SUDs on FER among subjects with schizophrenia, whilst COMT Val158Met, though based on a limited sample, might have a role just among those without AUDs/SUDs. Based on our results, additional research is needed also exploring differential roles of various substances.