Supervisors info:
Γιώργος Κωνσταντακόπουλος, Επιστημονικός Συνεργάτης, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Κωνσταντίνος Ψάρρος, Αναπληρωτής Καθηγητής, Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Πενταγιώτισσα Στεφανάτου, Μέλος Ε.ΔΙ.Π., Ιατρική Σχολή, ΕΚΠΑ
Summary:
Introduction: Some studies have found that empathy is reduced in bipolar disorder, other studies that there are high levels of empathy in manic episodes and finally other studies have found no deficits.
Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate any empathy deficits in patients with bipolar disorder I and / or cognitive deficits.
Material and Method: The Research measures included the Hamilton Depression Assessment Scale (HDRS), (Hamilton, 1960), the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), (Young, 1978), the short Psychiatric Assessment Scale (Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale BPRS), (Burger et al., 1977), the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS, Wechsler 1955), the Digit Span, Wechsler 1955 test, the d Trail Making Test (TMT) (Reitan, 1971), the Stroop Color-Word Test (Stroop, 1935), the Wisconsin Card Classification Test. (64 cards), (Grant & Berg, 1948), the Babcock History Recall Test (Babcock, 1930), Rey's Acoustic Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT), (Rey, 1964), the Faux Pas Recognition Test – Faux Pas Baron– Cohen et al.,1999), the Empathy Quotient (EQ) scale of empathy. (Baron-Cohen and Wheelwright, 2004). The sample was targeted and consisted of 103 individuals, of whom 55 met the DSM-IV criteria for bipolar I and 48 were healthy controls. The sample was collected by the psychiatric department of the General State Hospital of Athens G. Gennimatas and by the short-term treatment ward of the First Psychiatric Department of the University of Athens, the Eginition Hospital. Healthy controls were volunteers from the local communities.. There seems to be a correlation between cognitive deficits and empathy ,mainly in terms of cognitive empathy where most correlations with the assessment tests of cognitive functions are noted.
Results: According to the findings of the study, the scale of cognitive empathy is lower in patients either in episode or in euthymia, than in healthy controls. Similarly, the emotional response is also slightly lower in both patients in episode and in patients in remission than in healthy controls. A similar picture prevails in social skills, with patients in episode and patients in remission having lower scores than healthy controls. Finally, in terms of the scale of emotional experience, patients on episode and patients on normalcy also had lower scores than healthy controls.
Conclusions: Patients with bipolar disorder show lower rates of cognitive empathy, emotional response and social skills.
Keywords:
Bipolar disorder, Cognitive empathy, Emotional response, Theory of mind.
