Personality characteristics of empathy profiles - practical implications for education of medicine students.

BACKGROUND: Empathy plays the key role in the doctor - patient relationship. The research of empathy determinants plays an important role in formulating practical guidelines for the education of medical students. The aim of this study was to analyse personality characteristics of empathy profiles among students of medicine, with consideration of chief personality factors and their subdimensions according to the FFM model. METHODS: During workshops in Clinical Psychological Skills, 153 students (M = 57, F = 96; mean age 23 years) analysed their psychological functioning styles by examining their personality profiles and empathy indicators. Empathic Sensitiveness Scale (ESS) and Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) were applied for this purpose. The analyses of empathy indicators were presented by means of cluster analysis. Variance analysis with post hoc Tukey-b test was performed for differences between clusters and to differentiate between personality factors and their components in empathy clusters. This study was approved by the Jagiellonian University Bioethics Committee (approval number: 1072.6120.175.2018 date: 28.06.2018). RESULTS: The first cluster included students who presented high empathetic concern for others, understood their perspective and needs characterised by medium level of Neuroticism, high levels of other dimensions The second group included students who could understand others very well, yet with lower tendency to react emotionally to suffering, characterised by medium level of Neuroticism, Extraversion, Openness, high Conscientiousness and low Agreeableness. The third cluster included students who react strongly to painful and unpleasant reactions of others, characterised by high Neuroticism and Agreeableness, low Extraversion. CONCLUSIONS: Each empathy profile is manifested in relations with patients in a specific way. Medical education in empathy holds great potential to reduce anxiety, stress, and burnout associated with the medical profession. Discussion of individual results with students, gives an opportunity to talk about how their empathy and personality characteristics may influence their everyday medical practice.

Comparison of cognitive functioning of elders with late-life depression and patients with and without a history of depressive episodes: a cross-sectional study.

Nowadays there are numerous studies on the occurrence of cognitive dysfunction in late-life depression (LLD). The role of executive dysfunctions in the psychopathology of depression is particularly emphasized and needs further examination. The aim was to assess cognitive functions and their relation to depressive symptoms in elders with LLD, previously depressed, and patients without the history of depressive episodes. The study consisted of 824 older adults who underwent a neuropsychological evaluation (97 currently depressed, 114 previously depressed and 613 patients without the history of depressive episodes). LLD patients performed poorer in ACE-III and AVLT and poorer in TMT-B than those previously depressed and never depressed. The LLD group also performed significantly poorer than the previously depressed on Digit Span Forward. Results of a multiple regression analysis indicated that performance on measures of executive functioning was associated with depression severity in LLD (ß =.227, P =.024). The results of this study suggest that executive functions are the most impaired in the elderly with LLD. Furthermore, there is a relationship between executive dysfunction and the severity of depression in LLD. Executive dysfunction appears to be the core neurocognitive deficit in LLD.

[Clinical and demographic predictors of mild cognitive impairment - cross-sectional study].

OBJECTIVE: Introduction: Cognitive limitations are a serious health and social problem, which concerns elderly people. Effective prevention and treatment of cognitive dysfunction is one of the challenges of modern medicine. There is not enough consistent data in the literature to indicate to indicate the relationship between various clinical and demographic factors with cognitive functioning in different age ranges. The aim: To analyze clinical and demographic predictors of mild cognitive impairment by age group. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Material and methods: The analysis included 817 participants (669 with normal cognitive function and 148 people with MCI). The evaluation of the level of depressive symptoms was measured by the Short Form Geriatric Depression Scale. All participants were screened for cognitive functioning using the Mini-Mental State Examination and Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-III. Different cognitive domains were evaluated with different neuropsychological tools: the Rey Auditory Verbal Learning test, Clock Drawing test, Verbal Fluency test, Digit Span Test and Trail Making test. RESULTS: Results: It has been shown that independently associated with MCI ware age (OR = 1.09, 95% CI: 1.05-1.13) and level of education (OR = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.69-0.81). Depending on the age, it turned out that in the younger MCI group, age, education and depression were significant, and the age and level of education were significant in the older MCI group. CONCLUSION: Conclusions: The identification of cognitive dysfunctions is an important element of the diagnostic and therapeutic process.

Profiles of empathic sensitivity in students of the last year of medicine.

Developing the empathic attitude is one of the tasks of medical education as it affects the quality of therapeutic contact in the relationship between the doctor and the participant, conditioning the treatment process. According to Davis's concept, empathy is defined as an affective-cognitive reaction in the context of the other person's experience. AIM: Analysis of profiles of empathic sensitivity in students of medicine. Group: Male and female students of the fifth year of medicine who agreed to participate in an anonymous study (n = 153; M = 57, F = 96; mean age: 23 years). Tools: The Empathetic Sensitivity Scale (EES), which is the Polish tool for Davis's Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) was used. The ESS includes three sub-scales: Empathic Care (EC), Personal Distress (PD) and Adopting Perspective (AP). RESULTS: The raw results were converted into sten scores and for sten scores for all three dimensions of empathetic sensitivity no differences were found between male and female students. Three clusters (1: n = 33%, 2: n = 39%, 3: n = 28%), which differ in terms of each distinguished indicator, were identified. CONCLUSIONS: The first cluster characterizes empathetic people, both in the affective and cognitive spheres, and those dealing well with unpleasant emotions in situations difficult to others. The second cluster characterizes participants with the ability to recognize the needs of others and to take into account their perspectives; the third cluster includes participants with a tendency to focus on own experiences emerging in response to other people's suffering but with the ability to understand a situation and show empathic concern for the other person. The most favourable profile - for a future doctor as well as for his participants - is the first cluster because the doctor, with his empathic sensitivity directed towardsthe other man, can deal with his own unpleasant emotions.

[Profile of moral reasoning in persons with bipolar affective disorder]. / Profil rozumowania moralnego osób z choroba afektywna dwubiegunowa.

AIM: The subject of the research presented in this paper was to analyze the relationships between bipolar disorder (BD) and the profile of moral reasoning according to the concept of James Rest. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 86 persons took part in the research, including 43 bipolar patients and 43 healthy individuals. To measure the severity of depression and mania symptoms the following scales were used: Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D), Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) and Young Rating Scale for Mania (YMRS). Profile of moral reasoning was defined on the basis of the results obtained in the Defining Issue Test (DIT) by James Rest. RESULTS: Statistical analysis showed that there is a relationship between bipolar disorder (and its phases) and the profile of moral reasoning: bipolar patients significantly less often than healthy individuals chose answers indicating the postconventional thinking (p = 0.000) - and more often - answers indicating stage 3 and those belonging to the anti-institutional thinking index (p = 0.000). There was also a relationship shown between the development of moral reasoning and the phase of bipolar disorder: patients in mania less often than persons in euthymia chose answers indicating the final stage of moral thinking (p = 0.050). There were no significant differences between the results of patients with a depressive episode and the results of patients in mania and between the results of patients with a depressive episode and the results of patients in euthymia. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that the psychological state of the individual may have an impact on the process of moral reasoning - bipolar disorder may to some extent influence the way of thinking about moral dilemmas. The collected data also seem to emphasize the specificity of the manic phase which is especially worth exploration when conducting further studies.

Differences in personality related determinants of empathetic sensibility in female and male students of medicine.

The issues of personality and its relations with the level of empathetic sensibility of medical doctors are broadly discussed in the literature. The aim of this study was an assessment of personality related predictors of empathy indicators in female and male students of medicine with consideration of gender differences. Methods applied were Empathic Sensitiveness Scale (ESS) and Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R). The study included 153 participants, who were students of the fifth year of medical studies. Students filled in questionnaires during workshops in clinical psychological skills. Participation in the study was voluntary and anonymous. The statistical analysis was performed using Statistica 13 PL and PS IMAGO PRO (SPSS). Linear regression analysis with the interaction component was performed to explore the relationship between personality factors and gender and their interaction with the variable dependent level of empathy. The analysis showed that Extraversion, Openness and Agreeableness are associated with the level of Empathic Concern. Neuroticism, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness are associated with the level of Personal Distress. Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientiousness are associated with the level of Perspective-taking. The regression analysis with the interactive component showed that there is no relationship between gender and the level of empathy, therefore the interactions were insignificant. Empathetic sensibility is related to personality dimensions of the students of medicine. Although there has been no interaction among chief personality dimensions, empathy indicators and gender, detailed analysis of personality dimensions' components has shown differences between men and women.

Bipolar spectrum features in obese individuals.

UNLABELLED: AIM : The relationships between obesity and bipolar spectrum disorders (BSD) are unclear. Thus, the aim of our study were to approximate the prevalence of soft bipolar features in patients seeking treatment for obesity. METHODS: We performed a nested case-control study (cases: 90 patients with the mean BMI=38.1±7.0 [range: 30.1-62.5]; controls: 70 healthy volunteers with the mean BMI=21.6±2.1 [range: 18.5-24.9]). The participants were screened for the BSD symptoms with the Mood Disorder Questionnaire. RESULTS: Patients with obesity were significantly more likely to score ≥7 pts. on the MDQ 25.6% vs. 8.6%; p=0.01). In comparison to non-obese individuals, the obese patients scored significantly higher in MDQ section I and on the MDQ items referring to the 'irritability-racing thoughts' dimension of hypomania. The multiple logistic regression analysis revealed that obesity had been significantly related to the odds of obtaining ≥7 pts. on the MDQ section 1 (odds ratio [OR] = 2.07; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.17-3.63), and marginally significantly related to experiencing periods of 'ups' and 'downs'(OR = 1.67; 95% CI: 1.00-2.81). CONCLUSIONS: Our study adds to previous suggestions that obesity may be significantly related to the BSD. However, the clinical implications of this finding need to be determined in further studies, performed in accordance with the paradigm of evidence based medicine (EBM).