A stenography of empathy: Toward a consensual model of the empathic process.

Empathy has gained popularity in the general population and the scientific world during the past decade. Recently, several researchers found a significant decrease in empathy scores of healthcare students (notably medical students) and recommend promoting empathy skills in several fields of education. The current paper presents a new model of the empathic process: a stenography of empathy compelling scientific data and contemporary conceptions. Indeed, we combined all pioneer researchers' conceptions of empathy (Davis, Decety, Batson, Preston & de Waal) into an integrative model. This model is centered on the empathizer (i.e., a person observing a target experiencing emotions) and displays how all empathy components are articulated, explaining the individuals' general functioning and how the process might become dysfunctional. We illustrated applications of the model with three clinical examples (i.e., burnout, psychopathy, and borderline personality disorders) to display how empathy is related to psychopathological symptoms. We believe this new dynamic and sequential model would be helpful in explaining how empathy works, which is of great interest to healthcare students, clinicians, researchers, and academics.

[Virtual reality exposure therapy for post-traumatic stress disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders and anxiety disorders: Indications, added value and limitations]. / La thérapie par exposition en réalité virtuelle pour les états de stress post-traumatiques, les troubles obsessionnels compulsifs et les troubles anxieux : indications, plus-value et limites.

The exposure in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a well-known intervention, widely investigated in scientific research. Several studies have shown the benefits of this intervention in the treatment of anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD). The different exposure techniques are mainly based on the emotional processing of fear theory and use an emotional stimulation of fear, following by its habituation. However, new approaches have emerged and are based on the inhibitory learning theory. The virtual reality technology allows emotional involvement from patients and represents a complementary approach to the classical modalities of exposure therapy (e.g., mental or in vivo expositions). This modern approach presents specific features that need to be taken into account by the therapist. Firstly, the presence feeling, which is defined as the "be there" feeling. This feeling is dependent on immersive technical features and personality factors. Secondly, virtual reality sickness, similar to motion sickness, represents a limitation that might prejudice a virtual therapy. The main scientific investigations of Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) for treating social phobia, specific phobia, PTSD, and panic disorders are encouraging and demonstrate a similar effectiveness between both in vivo and in virtuo exposures. The scarce investigations on generalized anxiety disorders and OCD also suggeste a similar effectiveness between these exposures. However, further scientific investigations are needed to support these preliminary findings. The attrition rates and deteriorating states are similar to classical CBT approaches. Nevertheless, scientific literature presents several limits: 1) much of the research on this topic has interest conflicts (e.g., developers are also authors of a large number of studies); 2) there is a high heterogeneity of materials and virtual environments used; 3) important measures are not always taken into account in scientific research (e.g., the presence feeling); and 4) a massive use of waiting lists as a control measure. Despite these limitations, the VRET have strong silver linings: 1) the easy access to exposure (less limited than standard exposure techniques) and a cost reduction; 2) highly guaranteed security; 3) the anonymization of exposures (i.e., the patients do not risk meeting someone they know during the exposure therapy); 4) the therapist has a greater control of exposures; 5) a standardization of the exposures; 6) a greater involvement in therapy for technophile patients. Virtual exposure also seems to be generally more accepted by patients.

Decline of empathy among medical students: Dehumanization or useful coping process?

OBJECTIVES: Empathy is central in patient-physician interactions and understanding its development is decisive for education. However, scientific literatures report a striking decline of empathy among medical students during their study course. Firstly, we aimed to replicate this result on a Belgian population. Secondly, as well reported by literature, we expected higher empathy scores for women. Lastly, as central, we expected higher empathy levels for medical students than for "control" students (commercial students were used as a control group: social interactions without a curing aspect) at the beginning of their study course, suggesting that empathy drives students to select specific education fields. METHODS: Through a cross-sectional design, we assessed students from medical and commercial educations at different years of study with the Basic Empathy Scale (N=1602). We compared: (1) empathy scores at different scholar levels for both populations; (2) scores between men and women; (3) empathy scores between medical and commercial students in their first year of study. RESULTS: As expected, a significant empathy decline was displayed over time for medical students; women reported significant higher empathy scores than men; and, in their first year, medical students presented significant higher empathy scores than commercials. CONCLUSIONS: Replicating the empathy decline on several student populations is crucial, especially by using different tools. This decline is a multi-factorial process that mainly reflects self-representation changes. The empathy gender bias is a strong effect observed in several empathy-linked phenomena. Finally, empathy is not only central but also drives students to select specific education fields.