Abstract
Anxiety disorders are highly prevalent in Aotearoa New Zealand, with nearly a quarter of all New Zealanders receiving a diagnosis over a lifetime (Wells et al., 2006). Emotion recognition plays an essential part of non-verbal communication, and emotion recognition impairments are deeply embedded in the manifestation of anxiety symptomology (Surcinelli et al., 2006). The current project aimed to explore the effects of a commonly prescribed anti-anxiety pharmacotherapy, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs (e.g. citalopram, sertraline), on both anxiety and emotion recognition using a Facial Emotion Recognition Task(Harmer et al., 2004). The project was a preliminary analysis from a larger longitudinal study, and aimed to investigate how emotion recognition accuracy, reaction time and sensitivity(with focus on fear and happiness) are altered in those with clinically significant levels of anxiety with six or more weeks of a new SSRI treatment (47 volunteers) compared to those on a stable period (for 3+ months) of SSRI medication (14 volunteers). Additionally, the project explored changes in further emotions (surprise, sadness, anger and disgust), as well as how emotion recognition of fear and happiness differed in those with clinical anxiety (un-treated and treated) compared to healthy volunteers. Individuals starting SSRI treatment showed a significant alleviation of anxiety and depression symptomology, decreasing to equivalence with the stable SSRI-treated group. Additionally, prior to treatment, untreated individuals demonstrated initial heightened fear sensitivity, which then stabilised to levels of the SSRI-treated group by the follow-up session. In comparison, no significant changes between groups were observed in emotion recognition for happiness or any other emotions. Cross-sectional comparisons revealed group differences in anxiety and depression scores between the untreated, treated and healthy groups with a trend towards a significant difference in fear sensitivity, and no other significant emotion recognition differences were observed. These findings demonstrate that SSRIs can help stabilise heightened fear sensitivity and alleviate some anxiety symptoms, but these anxiety symptoms do not normalise to healthy volunteer levels. This provides insight into possible therapeutic mechanisms of SSRIs and holds practical implications for prescribing expectations to treat functional impairments associated with clinical anxiety.