Empathy for others' suffering and its mediators in mental health professionals

Empathy is a complex cognitive and affective process that allows humans to experience concern for others, comprehend their emotions, and eventually help them. In addition to studies with healthy subjects and various neuropsychiatric populations, a few reports have examined this domain focusing on mental health workers, whose daily work requires the development of a saliently empathic character. Building on this research line, the present population-based study aimed to (a) assess different dimensions of empathy for pain in mental health workers relative to general-physicians and non-medical workers; and (b) evaluate their relationship with relevant factors, such as moral profile, age, gender, years of experience, and workplace type. Relative to both control groups, mental health workers exhibited higher empathic concern and discomfort for others' suffering, and they favored harsher punishment to harmful actions. Furthermore, this was the only group in which empathy variability was explained by moral judgments, years of experience, and workplace type. Taken together, these results indicate that empathy is continuously at stake in mental health care scenarios, as it can be affected by contextual factors and social contingencies. More generally, they highlight the importance of studying this domain in populations characterized by extreme empathic demands.Fil: Santamaria Garcia, Hernando. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Báez Buitrago, Sandra Jimena. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: García, Adolfo Martín. Instituto de Neurología Cognitiva. Laboratorio de Psicología Experimental y Neurociencia; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Facultad de Educación Elemental y Especial; ArgentinaFil: Flichtentrei, Daniel. Intramed; ArgentinaFil: Prats, Lucía María. Intramed; Argentina. Centro de Educaciones Médicas e Investigación Clínica "Norberto Quirno"; ArgentinaFil: Mastandueno, Ricardo. Intramed; ArgentinaFil: Sigman, Mariano. Universidad Torcuato di Tella; ArgentinaFil: Matallana, Diana. Pontificia Universidad Javeriana; ColombiaFil: Cetkovich Bakmas, Marcelo Gustavo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; ArgentinaFil: Ibanez Barassi, Agustin Mariano. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Houssay. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva. Fundación Favaloro. Instituto de Neurociencia Cognitiva; Argentin

Men, women…who cares? A population-based study on sex differences and gender roles in empathy and moral cognition.

Research on sex differences in empathy has revealed mixed findings. Whereas experimental and neuropsychological measures show no consistent sex effect, self-report data consistently indicates greater empathy in women. However, available results mainly come from separate populations with relatively small samples, which may inflate effect sizes and hinder comparability between both empirical corpora. To elucidate the issue, we conducted two large-scale studies. First, we examined whether sex differences emerge in a large population-based sample (n = 10,802) when empathy is measured with an experimental empathy-for-pain paradigm. Moreover, we investigated the relationship between empathy and moral judgment. In the second study, a subsample (n = 334) completed a self-report empathy questionnaire. Results showed some sex differences in the experimental paradigm, but with minuscule effect sizes. Conversely, women did portray themselves as more empathic through self-reports. In addition, utilitarian responses to moral dilemmas were less frequent in women, although these differences also had small effect sizes. These findings suggest that sex differences in empathy are highly driven by the assessment measure. In particular, self-reports may induce biases leading individuals to assume gender-role stereotypes. Awareness of the role of measurement instruments in this field may hone our understanding of the links between empathy, sex differences, and gender roles

Agresiones hacia profesionales en el ámbito de la salud

OBJETIVO: Determinar la frecuencia de agresiones al personal sanitario en una red social de profesionales de la salud y caracterizar aspectos que profundicen su comprensión y el desarrollo de estrategias de prevención. MÉTODOS: Se realizó una encuesta electrónica voluntaria y confidencial a través del sitio web IntraMed. Se analizó la frecuencia de agresiones verbales y físicas y su asociación con variables demográficas, ocupación, carrera, especialidad, eventuales consecuencias, percepción de inseguridad en el lugar de trabajo y propuestas para reducirla. RESULTADOS: Se analizaron 19 967 encuestas. En 13 323 (66,7%), se refirieron agresiones. El 11,3% de las agresiones fueron físicas. El 73,4% ocurrieron en instituciones públicas, principalmente en áreas de emergencia. Los desencadenantes más frecuentes fueron la demora en la atención y la carencia de recursos. Se informó, en los agresores, intoxicación por alcohol o drogas en 13,8%, estado mental alterado por otra causa o enfermedad psiquiátrica en 13,9%, y en 63% no se detectó alteración de las facultades mentales. En 16,9% de los casos se informaron secuelas en los profesionales agredidos, en 7,9% secuelas físicas y en 28% de los lesionados suspensión temporaria de la actividad laboral. En 46,6% se refirió inseguridad en el lugar de trabajo y se sugirieron diversas medidas para reducirla, entre las que se destacó la educación comunitaria. CONCLUSIONES: La violencia verbal o física hacia el personal de la salud resultó frecuente, con la consecuencia de secuelas laborales, psíquicas e incluso físicas. La información aportada por este estudio podría utilizarse para desarrollar estrategias orientadas a su prevención y control

Empathy for others’ sufering and its mediators in mental health professionals

Q1Q1Profesionales de la saludEmpathy is a complex cognitive and afective process that allows humans to experience concern for others, comprehend their emotions, and eventually help them. In addition to studies with healthy subjects and various neuropsychiatric populations, a few reports have examined this domain focusing on mental health workers, whose daily work requires the development of a saliently empathic character. Building on this research line, the present population-based study aimed to (a) assess diferent dimensions of empathy for pain in mental health workers relative to general-physicians and non-medical workers; and (b) evaluate their relationship with relevant factors, such as moral profle, age, gender, years of experience, and workplace type. Relative to both control groups, mental health workers exhibited higher empathic concern and discomfort for others’ sufering, and they favored harsher punishment to harmful actions. Furthermore, this was the only group in which empathy variability was explained by moral judgments, years of experience, and workplace type. Taken together, these results indicate that empathy is continuously at stake in mental health care scenarios, as it can be afected by contextual factors and social contingencies. More generally, they highlight the importance of studying this domain in populations characterized by extreme empathic demandsRevista Internacional - Indexad

Significant sex differences in responses to moral and non-moral dilemmas.

<p>Asterisks indicate significant differences (<i>p</i> < .05). Differences with a small or higher effect size (Cramer’s V ≥ 0.1) are marked with a bold border.</p