Emotion Recognition and Psychological Comorbidity in Friedreich’s Ataxia

Teresa Costabile, Veronica Capretti, Filomena Abate, Agnese Liguori, Francesca Paciello, Chiara Pane, Anna De Rosa, Silvio Peluso, Giuseppe De Michele, Alessandro Filla, Francesco Saccà; Cerebellum (2018). doi:10.1007/s12311-018-0918-5

Little effort has been made to understand the psychological and emotional burden of the disease. The aim of our study was to measure patients’ ability to recognize emotions using visual and non-verbal auditory hints, and to correlate this ability with psychological, neuropsychological, and neurological variables. FRDA patients have impaired emotion recognition that may be secondary to neuropsychological impairment. Depression and anxiety were not higher in FRDA as compared to HC and should not be considered as part of the disease.

 Emotion Recognition and Psychological Comorbidity in Friedreich’s Ataxia