Mia Atoui1, Fatima El Jamil1, Joseph El Khoury2, Mark Doumit3, Nathalie Syriani1,2,3,4, Munir Khani2, Ziad Nahas4. 1. American University of Beirut, Department of Psychology, Beirut, Lebanon. 2. American University of Beirut Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Beirut, Lebanon. 3. American University of Beirut, Department of Medicine, Beirut, Lebanon. 4. University of Minnesota, Department of Psychiatry, MN, USA.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is often associated with poor clinical insight (unawareness of mental illness and its symptoms) and deficits in empathy, which are important for social functioning. Cognitive empathy has been linked to clinical insight while affective empathy and its role in insight and pathology have received mixed evidence. METHODS: Instruments assessing symptomatology (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale; PANSS), clinical insight (Scales to assess awareness of mental disorders; SUMD), and cognitive and affective empathy were administered to 22 participants with first episode and chronic schizophrenia and 21 healthy controls. Self-report, parent-report, and performance based measures were used to assess cognitive and affective empathy (The interpersonal reactivity index; IRI/Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test/Faux Pas) to reduce bias and parse shared variance. RESULTS: Age of onset, gender, and symptomatology emerged as significant predictors of poor clinical insight. Additionally, the fantasy subscale of the IRI as reported by parents emerged as a positive predictor while the personal distress (parent report) subscale emerged as a negative predictor of awareness into mental illness. There were significant differences on performance-based measures of empathy between the control and schizophrenia groups. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that affective empathy is relatively intact across phases of illness whereas cognitive empathy abilities are compromised and could be targets for psychotherapy intervention.
BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is often associated with poor clinical insight (unawareness of mental illness and its symptoms) and deficits in empathy, which are important for social functioning. Cognitive empathy has been linked to clinical insight while affective empathy and its role in insight and pathology have received mixed evidence. METHODS: Instruments assessing symptomatology (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale; PANSS), clinical insight (Scales to assess awareness of mental disorders; SUMD), and cognitive and affective empathy were administered to 22 participants with first episode and chronic schizophrenia and 21 healthy controls. Self-report, parent-report, and performance based measures were used to assess cognitive and affective empathy (The interpersonal reactivity index; IRI/Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test/Faux Pas) to reduce bias and parse shared variance. RESULTS: Age of onset, gender, and symptomatology emerged as significant predictors of poor clinical insight. Additionally, the fantasy subscale of the IRI as reported by parents emerged as a positive predictor while the personal distress (parent report) subscale emerged as a negative predictor of awareness into mental illness. There were significant differences on performance-based measures of empathy between the control and schizophrenia groups. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that affective empathy is relatively intact across phases of illness whereas cognitive empathy abilities are compromised and could be targets for psychotherapy intervention.
Authors: Thomas J Whitford; Stuart M Grieve; Tom F D Farrow; Lavier Gomes; John Brennan; Anthony W F Harris; Evian Gordon; Leanne M Williams Journal: Neuroimage Date: 2006-05-03 Impact factor: 6.556
Authors: Esther Pousa; Rosó Duñó; Gildas Brébion; Anthony S David; Ada I Ruiz; Jordi E Obiols Journal: Psychiatry Res Date: 2007-12-31 Impact factor: 3.222