Patients with schizophrenia show a deficit in emotion recognition through facial expression and the low sense of familiarity may be a factor involved. However, the emotion facial expression in families of patients could be disturbed and be another factor related to the deficit in emotion recognition and in sense of familiarity in schizophrenia.

To assess the emotion facial expression in a sample of 21 families of patients with schizophrenia and families of healthy controls.

22 healthy volunteers, all of them professionals of mental health, were assessed with the Ekman Test of emotion recognition in unfamiliar people which was photographed by expressing the 6 Ekman’s basic emotions. The task was composed of 42 pictures, half of them from families of patients and the other half from families of healthy control.

Volunteers recognize worse emotions in relatives of patients than in relatives of control group and this difference was statistically significant (Wilcoxon W = -4.13; p = .001). The average of pictures correctly recognized from families of patients was lower than pictures from families of control group (54.28% vs. 82%).

The emotion facial expression in families of patients with schizophrenia seems worse than in families of healthy controls. It could be a factor involved in face emotion recognition deficit in schizophrenia.