Objective To explore the impairment of facial expression recognition（ FER） function and related factors in patients with bipolar disorder（ BD） in remission. Methods A total of 53 BD patients in remission were continuously recruited from Mental Health Center of Hebei Medical University from March 2015 to December 2016（ BD group）. Another 64 individuals including the staff of Mental Health Center of Hebei Medical University and people who accompanied or visited the patients without blood relationship（ control group）. All subjects were evaluated by facial expression recognition task， and the recognition accuracy and response time of six facial expressions（ happy， sad， angry， fearful， disgusted and surprised） were compared. Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation between facial expression recognition and clinical features（ total course of disease， years of education， total episodes）， Young Mania Rating Scale （YMRS）， Hamilton Depression Scale（ HAMD） score， Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index（ PSQI）. Results The accuracy of face recognition of the BD group was all lower than that of the control group［ happy：（ 0.881±0.145） vs（ 0.959±0.848）， sad：（ 0.516±0.197） vs（ 0.609±0.166）， angry：（ 0.497±0.190） vs（ 0.589±0.179）， fearful： （0.249±0.140） vs（ 0.309±0.133）， disgusted：（ 0.340±0.164） vs（ 0.433±0.160）， surprised：（0.588±0.214） vs（ 0.687±0.160）］（ P＜ 0.05）. The response time of the BD group was significantly longer than that of the healthy controls［ happy：（ 1 819±463） vs（ 1 526±412）ms， sad：（ 2 635±591） vs（ 2 326±461）ms， angry： （2 628±585） vs（ 2 371±442）ms， fearful：（ 2 723±558） vs（ 2 388±483）ms， disgusted：（ 2 666±618） vs （2 424±470）ms， surprised：（ 2 557±597） vs（ 2 196±543）ms］， and the differences were statistically significant （P＜0.05）. Correlation analysis showed that the accuracy of angry face recognition was negatively correlated with the total number of attacks（ r=-0.294， P=0.033）. The accuracy of surprise face recognition was significantly positively correlated with the total course of disease（ r=0.281，P=0.042） and with the years of education（ r=0.284， P=0.039）. The response time of surprise faces was significantly positively correlated with the total course of disease（ r=0.308， P=0.025）， and was significantly negatively with the years of education（ r=-0.273， P=0.048）. There was no significant correlation between the accuracy of sad， happy and fearful face recognition and clinical features， HAMD， YMRS and PSQI scores（ P＞0.05）. There was no significant correlation between the response time of sad， angry， happy and fearful face recognition and the clinical features， HAMD， YMRS and PSQI scores（ P＞0.05）. Conclusions In remission stage， BD has decreased FER function， the accuracy and response time of partial facial expression recognition are correlated with the total course of disease， years of education and the total number of attacks.