Relationship between clinical characteristics and empathic responding in patients with major depressive disorder

2016-03-25T20-21-33Z
Source: Düşünen Adam: The Journal of Psychiatry and Neurological Sciences
Okan Ekinci, Aslı Ekinci.
Aim To our knowledge, there is no study specifically examined the relation between clinical features and empathic responding in patients with MDD. Our aim was to examine cognitive and affective empathic responding of patients with major depressive disorder and to explore the possible relations between the clinical features and empathy. Methods The sociodemographic and clinical properties of 83 patients with major depression were recorded. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) was used to assess severity of depression. Hopelessness level was measured by Beck Hopelessness Scale ( BHS). Patients empathic ability was evaluated by using Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) and results were compared with 85 healthy controls. We used Pearson correlation and general linear model analysis to evaluate the manner in which the variables contributed to IRI scores. Results Perspective Taking (IRI-PT), Empathic concern (IRI-EC) and Fantasy (IRI-FS) subscores were all substantially lower in subjects with depression than in healthy comparison subjects while Personal Distress (IRI-PD) subscore was higher than in healthy subjects. There were significant effects of gender on the scores of IRI-EC and IRI-FS. Lower IRI-FS and IRI- PD scores were found to be significantly related to high suicide risk in depression. Conclusion Based on our results, patients with major depressive disorder have significantly impaired empathy measures compared to normal population. Our findings also suggest a close relationship among suicidality and empathy in patients with MDD. Keywords: major depressive disorder, empathy, suicide, hopelessness, gender


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