Understanding versus feeling the emotions of others: How persistent and recurrent depression affect empathy

Guhn, Anne; Merkel, Lydia; Hübner, Laura; Dziobek, Isabel; Sterzer, Philipp; Köhler, Stephan

doi:10.1016/j.jpsychires.2020.06.023

Cited by 33 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 45 publications

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“…Considering previous findings of increased personal distress (49,50) and our present findings of reduced compassion in patients with PDD, it could be hypothesized that patients with PDD experience other people's negative experiences as distressing rather than responding to them compassionately (i.e., with emotional concern). However, the assumption of reduced empathic concern would be in contrast to findings that suggest that empathic concern is either not reduced (49,51) or is even increased (50) in patients with PDD. Moreover, our findings of reduced compassion in PDD cannot be validly reconciled with other studies' findings of increased personal distress (as a correlate of reduced compassion) because the CLS contains few items regarding distress tolerance (41) and correlates only weakly with personal distress (48).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Reduced Social Connectedness and Compassion Toward Close Others in Patients With Chronic Depression Compared to a Non-clinical Sample

et al. 2021

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Reduced social functioning in depression has been explained by different factors. Reduced social connectedness and prosocial motivation may contribute to interpersonal difficulties, particularly in chronic depression. In the present study, we tested whether social connectedness and prosocial motivation are reduced in chronic depression. Forty-seven patients with persistent depression and 49 healthy controls matched for age and gender completed the Inclusion of the Other in the Self Scale (IOS), the Compassionate Love Scale (CLS), the Beck Depression Inventory-II, and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. A Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) with IOS and CLS as dependent variables revealed a highly significant difference between both groups. The IOS and the CLS-subscale Close Others were lower in persistent depression, whereas there was no difference in the CLS-subscale Strangers/Humanity. IOS and CLS-Close Others showed significant negative correlations with depressive symptoms. Connectedness to family members as measured by the IOS was negatively correlated with childhood trauma in patients with chronic depression. The results indicate that compassion and perceived social connection are reduced in depressed patients toward close others, but not to others in general. Implications for the treatment of depression are discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Reduced Social Connectedness and Compassion Toward Close Others in Patients With Chronic Depression Compared to a Non-clinical Sample

et al. 2021

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“…A strong sensitivity to guilt is considered a basic element in the pathology of OCD, particularly in cognitive-behavioral models (27,(33)(34)(35)(36). Also, a positive and significant association was found between depressive symptoms and altruistic guilt or high levels of empathy (37,38). These results suggest that some psychopathological disorders are characterized by specific guilt feelings.…”

Section: Clarifying the Nature Of Guilt: A Central Clinical Issuementioning

confidence: 83%

A Systematic Review of Instruments to Assess Guilt in Children and Adolescents

2020

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Background: Guilt feelings have received considerable attention in past psychological theory and research. Several studies have been conducted that represent a range of views and propose various implications of guilt in children and adolescents. Variations in theoretical definitions of guilt, emphasizing a lack of measurement convergence, make it difficult to derive a comprehensive definition of the construct in childhood and adolescence. Research shows substantial variability in instruments used to measure guilt in children and adolescents.Purpose: The aim is to discuss existing contributions, illustrating the empirical validity of the available instruments used to measure guilt and identifying the nature of their theoretical backgrounds among children and adolescents.Methods: A systematic search was conducted using the following databases: PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, MEDLINE, Scopus, Web of Science, and PubMed (all years up to February 19, 2020). Search terms were compiled into three concepts for all databases: “measure,” “guilt,” and “childhood/adolescence.” In addition, a search was conducted to detect the gray literature.Results: After removing the duplicates, a total of 1,408 records were screened, resulting in the identification of 166 full-text articles to be further scrutinized. Upon closer examination, there was consensus that 148 of those studies met the study inclusion criteria or were not retrieved. Twenty-five studies were included in the quality assessment. The data were organized on three main categories: (1) interpersonal or prosocial guilt; (2) intrapunitive guilt or that referring to an excessive sense of responsibility; (3) not specifying a theoretical construct. A great heterogeneity in psychometric evaluations and substantial variability in guilt construct emerged. The construct most represented and supported by valid instruments was interpersonal or prosocial guilt. Analysis of the gray literature showed that some instruments were not immediately available to the clinical and scientific communities.Conclusions: The studies analyzed and selected for qualitative review employed various instruments to measure guilt. Results confirmed what is widely documented in the literature about substantial variability in instruments used to measure guilt. We argue the need to develop measures that assess currently overlooked dimensions of guilt and to provide further additional information about the psychometric proprieties of the available developed instruments.

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“… 14 Using the IRI, Guhn et al found that patients with depression reported greater personal distress than healthy controls, with no differences in the other domains. 15 …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Social cognition and suicide-related behaviors in depression: a cross-sectional, exploratory study

Senna¹,

Schwab²,

Melo³

et al. 2022

Brazilian Journal of Psychiatry

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Objective: To explore the association between social cognition and previous suicide attempts and non-suicidal self-injurious behavior in adults with unipolar depressive disorders. Methods: Seventy-two patients undergoing outpatient treatment for unipolar depression were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. Theory of mind was assessed using the Hinting Task and the Revised Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test. Empathy was evaluated using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index. Lifetime suicide attempts and non-suicidal self-injurious behavior were assessed using the Columbia Suicide Risk Rating Scale. Participants with and without these suicide-related outcomes were compared in terms of social cognition. Results: Patients with previous suicide attempts performed worse on the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (p = 0.017). Patients with a history of non-suicidal self-injurious behavior were younger (p = 0.005), had a younger age at first depressive episode (p = 0.017), and scored higher on personal distress in the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (p = 0.027). Only personal distress remained independently associated with non-suicidal self-injurious behavior in multivariable analysis (p = 0.038). Conclusion: Among patients with depression, those with previous suicide attempts or non-suicidal self-injurious behavior showed worse social cognition. These results encourage future research on social cognition deficits as clinical markers of suicide-related behaviors and as targets for interventions.

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Understanding versus feeling the emotions of others: How persistent and recurrent depression affect empathy

Cited by 33 publications

References 45 publications

Reduced Social Connectedness and Compassion Toward Close Others in Patients With Chronic Depression Compared to a Non-clinical Sample

Reduced Social Connectedness and Compassion Toward Close Others in Patients With Chronic Depression Compared to a Non-clinical Sample

A Systematic Review of Instruments to Assess Guilt in Children and Adolescents

Social cognition and suicide-related behaviors in depression: a cross-sectional, exploratory study

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