Articles: empathy.
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Review
Perspective: medical students' perceptions of the poor: what impact can medical education have?
There is currently little knowledge or understanding of medical students' knowledge and attitudes toward the poor. Teaching hospitals bring students face-to-face with poor and uninsured patients on a regular basis. However, an overview of the research available suggests that this contact does not result in students' greater understanding and empathy for the plight of the poor and may, in fact, lead to an erosion of positive attitudes toward the poor. ⋯ They provide three suggestions for improving trainees' knowledge of and attitudes toward the poor-namely, increasing the socioeconomic diversity of students, promoting empathy through curricular efforts, and focusing more directly on role modeling. The authors argue that service learning, especially efforts that include gaining detailed knowledge of a particular person or persons, coupled with critical reflection, presents a very promising direction toward achieving these goals. Finally, they posit an agenda for future educational research that might contribute to the increased efficacy of medical education in this important formative domain.
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Medical educators act on the belief that students benefit from formal and informal educational experiences that foster virtues such as compassion, altruism, and respect for patients. ⋯ Medical students arrive at our doors as thoughtful, compassionate people. Positive role models and activities to promote critical self-reflection may help nurture these attitudes.
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Aging & mental health · Jul 2008
Comparative StudyEmpathy and social functioning in late adulthood.
Both cognitive and affective empathy are regarded as essential prerequisites for successful social functioning, and recent studies have suggested that cognitive, but not affective, empathy may be adversely affected as a consequence of normal adult aging. This decline in cognitive empathy is of concern, as older adults are particularly susceptible to the negative physical and mental health consequences of loneliness and social isolation. ⋯ These findings are consistent with theoretical models that regard cognitive empathy as an essential prerequisite for good interpersonal functioning. However, the cross-sectional nature of the study leaves open the question of causality for future studies.
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J Vasc Interv Radiol · Jun 2008
Randomized Controlled TrialBeneficial effects of hypnosis and adverse effects of empathic attention during percutaneous tumor treatment: when being nice does not suffice.
To determine how hypnosis and empathic attention during percutaneous tumor treatments affect pain, anxiety, drug use, and adverse events. ⋯ Procedural hypnosis including empathic attention reduces pain, anxiety, and medication use. Conversely, empathic approaches without hypnosis that provide an external focus of attention and do not enhance patients' self-coping can result in more adverse events. These findings should have major implications in the education of procedural personnel.
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Extensive work implicates abnormal amygdala activation in emotional facial expression processing in adults with callous-unemotional traits. However, no research has examined amygdala response to emotional facial expressions in adolescents with disruptive behavior and callous-unemotional traits. Moreover, despite high comorbidity of callous-unemotional traits and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), no research has attempted to distinguish neural correlates of pediatric callous-unemotional traits and ADHD. ⋯ This is the first study to demonstrate reduced amygdala responsiveness in youths with callous-unemotional traits. These findings support the contention that callous and unemotional personality traits are associated with reduced amygdala response to distress-based social cues.