Comparing the Facial Emotion Recognition in Opioid Antecedent Subjects and Mixed Opioid-methamphetamine Antecedent Subjects under Methadone Maintenance Therapy with Control Group-A Retrospective Cohort Study

Facial emotion recognition (FER) is an important social skill. Some studies have determined the capability of FER in substance abusers, but their results are contradictory.

This study aimed to investigate FER ability in opioid antecedent subjects and mixed opioid-methamphetamine antecedent subjects under methadone maintenance therapy compared to a control group.

Following a retrospective cohort design, 71 methadone-maintained subjects (MMS) (40 individuals with a history of only opioid use disorder and 31 patients with a history of both opioid and methamphetamine use disorder) and 40 healthy participants filled the Persian version of Ackman and Friesen facial emotion experiment, which were matched based on age, education, and gender. Demographic and substance use characteristics were evaluated. Both groups were similar concerning the duration of the opioid use disorder, methadone maintenance treatment, and currently prescribed methadone dose. Data were analyzed using the chi-square, independent t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Welch test. Statistical significance was considered when P-value < 0.05.

Total FER scores were significantly lower in MMS compared to the control group. Concerning the subgroups, recognition of sadness was impaired in patients with a history of opioid use disorder (with and without a history of methamphetamine use disorder), while in recognition of anger and wonder, patients with both opioid and methamphetamine use disorder history had a significantly lower performance. There was no other significant difference between the groups.

The findings suggest that social cognition deficit should be considered in strategies related to the addiction (both treatment and rehabilitation).