Research on the facial emotion identification-discrimination and communication skills in synthetic cannabis users: Cross-sectional controlled study

Although synthetic cannabinoids (SK) are used by marginal and excited groups, they are among the most widely used psychoactive substances in recent years due to their low costs and limitations in toxicological tests. Synthetic cannabinoids causes different health problems in the users. Patients treatment becomes difficult because of the variations in their chemical structure. In our research, the possible effects of synthetic cannabinoid use on emotion identification, discrimination and communication skills were compared with control group. Our study was carried out with the participation of 62 patients with synthetic cannabinoid use in the last one year who applied to Ege Universty Faculty of Medicine Department of Mental Health and Mental Disorders Drug Addiction Clinic between April 2017-September 2018. In addition, 62 healthy individuals with no history of substance use were included in the study as a control group. The research sample consisted of 124 male participants aged 18-56 years. The exclusion criteria for the study, significant cognitive disorder, active psychotic disorder, active mood disorders and mental retardation. In the process of applying the scale; Socio-demographic Information Form, Dependency Profile Index (BAPI), Facial Emotion Identification Test, Facial Emotion Discrimination Test and Communication Skills Scale-Adult Form were used. In our study, patients who had a history of SK use had a higher level of facial emotion identification skills than the control group. The ability to facial emotion discrimination does not show a significant difference between the patient group and the control group. There is no significant correlation between the duration of synthetic cannabinoid use, and the severity of addiction, and the facial emotion identification skills and the facial emotion discrimination skills. While there was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of communication skills, there was no correlation between communication skills and the facial emotion identification skills, the facial emotion discrimination skills between the patients who had a history of SK use. The effect of communication, emotion identification and discrimination skills on increasing the social adaptation of individuals, maintaining their Professional and academic lifes and family relations and developed new vital skills cannot be denied. Elimination of weaknesses in social skills and emotion identification, discrimination skills, which are related to substance use will increase the effectiveness of addiction treatment. In new studies, it would be useful to develop measurement tools specific to the field of addiction, to reach larger samples, to use neuroimaging measures in researches, to use toxicological analyzes and to develop psychoeducational interventions. Keywords: Synthetic Cannabinoids; Drug Addiction; Facial Emotion Identification-Discrimination; Communication Skills.