안정기 1형 양극성장애 환자의 자가보고 공감 반응 : 조현병 환자 및 정상인과의 비교

Abstract

Objectives : Empathy is thought to be multi-dimensional in nature involving cognitive and affective components. Schizophrenia patients showed consistently impaired empathic abilities whereas patients with bipolar I disorder showed controversial results. We investigated the self-reported empathic responding and relationships between empathy and other clinical factors in patients with clinically stable bipolar I disorder and schizophrenia. Methods : We evaluated affective and cognitive components of empathy using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) in 40 patients with bipolar I disorder, 30 patients with schizophrenia, and 58 healthy controls. Results : Patients with bipolar I disorder and schizophrenia both showed higher scores in 'Personal distress' of the IRI compared to healthy controls (p=0.017; p=0.042). There was no significant difference between the bipolar group and the schizophrenia group in all dimensions. Within the bipolar group, positive correlations of 'Personal distress' scores with education years (r=0.388, p=0.013) and total scores of Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (r=0.366, p=0.020) were observed. Conclusion : These preliminary results suggest that clinically stable patients with bipolar I disorder has alterations in self-reported affective empathy abilities as much as patients with schizophrenia do. Additional studies are required to determine the potential contribution of cognitive and psychosocial functioning and the application of laboratory empathy tasks.