Emotional regulation and emotional processing among schizophrenia patients or patients at high risk for psychosis – a review

Schizophrenia represents a serious mental disorder mainly characterized by psychotic symptoms (also called positive symptoms) such as hallucinations, delusions, disorganized thought and speech. People diagnosed with schizophrenia also experience symptoms like avolition, anhedonia, affective applatization and social withdrawal (which are known as negative symptoms). Studies show that schizophrenia patients or schizophrenia-prone patients have emotion regulation difficulties and impaired emotional processing involving experience, expression, and recognition of emotions, although they seem to be able to apply certain emotion regulation strategies (such as reappraisal or distraction) under experimental conditions. The aim of this narrative review is to gain an understanding of the existing research regarding emotion regulation and emotion processing deficits in patients with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder or at high risk for psychosis as well as highlighting what strategies work best for down-regulating negative affect or anxiety in psychosis. Both emotion regulation and processing are viable instruments in managing emotion, further studies are required to evaluate the impact of those strategies in schizophrenia patients.