Is empathy correlated to patients’ level of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia?

Abstract

Introduction

Empathy, which refers to the ability to understand and share the thoughts and feelings of others, may be compromised in schizophrenia (SCZ). Yet the relationship between empathy and neurocognitive functioning remains unclear.

Objectives

To explore whether cognitive and affective empathy are associated with the neurocognitive functioning in SCZ.

Methods

Fifty-eight outpatients with stable SCZ completed the Questionnaire of Cognitive and Affective Empathy (QCAE) comprising five subscales intended to assess cognitive and affective components of empathy. They also completed a neurocognitive battery comprising the following tests: the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test–Revised (HVLT-R), the Letter Digit Substitution Test (LDST), the Stroop Test (ST), the “Double Barrage” of Zazzo (DBZ), the Modified Card Sorting Test (MCST), Verbal Fluency (VF), the Trail Making Test-Part A (TMT-A) and the Digit Span (DS).

Results

Better affective and cognitive empathy correlated with better performance in the ST (less hesitations and less errors). Patients with better cognitive empathy performed better in the MCST (more categories achieved; P = 0.029) and in the LDST (more substitutions per minute; P = 0.031).

Conclusions

Our results bolster support for the presence of an association between NF and the decreased cognitive and affective empathy in schizophrenia.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.