Articles: empathy.
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This fMRI study was set up to explore how cognitive empathy, i.e. the cognitive inference on another person's affective state, can be characterized as a distinct brain function relating to pre-existing neurofunctional concepts about mentalizing and empathy. In a 3 Tesla MRI scanner 28 healthy participants were presented with four different instructions randomly combined with 32 false-belief cartoon stories of 3 subsequent pictures free of direct cues for affective states, like e.g. facial expressions. Participants were instructed to judge affective or visuospatial changes from their own (1st person perspective) or the protagonists' (3rd person perspective, 3rdpp) perspective. 3rdpp-judgements about affective states differed from visuospatial 3rdpp judgements by a significantly higher activation of the anterior mentalizing network (dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, anterior superior temporal sulcus, temporal poles) and the limbic system (left amygdala and hippocampus). ⋯ The simultaneous activation of the cortical mentalizing network and the amygdala indicates that cognitive empathy actually involves reference to own affective states in the observer. Notably, the cognitive reference to own affective states activated the mentalizing network as well. Moreover our results support pre-existing ideas about a functional anterior-posterior subdivision of the mentalizing network, depending on affective content and 3rd person perspective of cognition.
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In 5 studies, the authors examined the hypothesis that people have systematically distorted beliefs about the pain of social suffering. By integrating research on empathy gaps for physical pain (Loewenstein, 1996) with social pain theory (MacDonald & Leary, 2005), the authors generated the hypothesis that people generally underestimate the severity of social pain (ostracism, shame, etc.)--a biased judgment that is only corrected when people actively experience social pain for themselves. Using a social exclusion manipulation, Studies 1-4 found that nonexcluded participants consistently underestimated the severity of social pain compared with excluded participants, who had a heightened appreciation for social pain. ⋯ The authors argue that beliefs about social pain are important because they govern how people react to socially distressing events. In Study 5, middle school teachers were asked to evaluate policies regarding emotional bullying at school. This revealed that actively experiencing social pain heightened the estimated pain of emotional bullying, which in turn led teachers to recommend both more comprehensive treatment for bullied students and greater punishment for students who bully.
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Case Reports
Teaching communication and compassionate care skills: an innovative curriculum for pre-clerkship medical students.
Physicians require communications training to improve effective and compassionate care. Clinicians discuss challenging communication issues in existing hospital "Schwartz Rounds." ⋯ Integrating a pre-clerkship communications curriculum may help improve future physicians' interactions with patients and families. Implications of this curriculum for medical education are discussed.
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A review of the literature on the health of nurses leaves little doubt that their work may take a toll on their psychosocial and physical health and well being. Nurses working in several specialty practice areas, such as intensive care, mental health, paediatrics, and oncology have been found to be particularly vulnerable to work-related stress. ⋯ While the emphasis of this article is on compassion fatigue and its theoretical conceptualization, the concepts of burnout and vicarious traumatization are also discussed. Two questions are posed for discussion: 1) Does compassion fatigue exist on a continuum of occupational stress? If so, is burnout a pre-condition for compassion fatigue; 2) What are the relationships between the types of occupational stress? To what extent does non-resolution of compassion fatigue increase the risk for developing vicarious traumatization? Case examples are provided to support this discussion.
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Support Care Cancer · Jan 2011
How do non-physician clinicians respond to advanced cancer patients' negative expressions of emotions?
Patients with advanced cancer often experience negative emotion; clinicians' empathic responses can alleviate patient distress. Much is known about how physicians respond to patient emotion; less is known about non-physician clinicians. Given that oncology care is increasingly provided by an interdisciplinary team, it is important to know more about how patients with advanced cancer express emotions to non-physician clinicians (NPCs) and how NPCs respond to those empathic opportunities. ⋯ Patients expressed emotional concerns to NPCs typically in the form of anger; most emotions were moderately severe, with no statistical differences among types of NPC. On average, NPCs responded to patient emotion with empathic language only 30% of the time. A better understanding of NPC-patient interactions can contribute to improved communication training for NPCs and, ultimately, to higher quality patient care in cancer.