Empathy impairments in patients with gambling disorder.

IF 1.7 4区心理学 Q3 CLINICAL NEUROLOGY

Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology Pub Date : 2026-05-01 Epub Date: 2026-03-26 DOI:10.1080/13803395.2026.2622924

Dalia Arafat, Nena Schröer, Georg Juckel, Dae-In Chang, Patrizia Thoma

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Introduction: In spite of well-documented empathy impairments in substance use disorders and significant overlap in neurobiological and cognitive functioning with behavioral addictions such as gambling disorder (GD), little is known about empathy impairments in GD. The aim of this study was thus to investigate cognitive and emotional empathy and its association with cognitive functioning in GD.

Methods: Twenty-five treatment-seeking individuals diagnosed with GD, 25 recently detoxified patients diagnosed with alcohol use disorder (AUD), and 25 healthy controls (HCs) were assessed using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (self-report measure), and the Multifaceted Empathy Test (behavioral measure) to assess cognitive and emotional empathy, along with three clinical and three cognitive measures.

Results: The GD group scored lower on self-report empathy compared to the AUD group. Additionally, using the behavioral measure, the GD group exhibited lower cognitive empathy compared to HCs but intact emotional empathy. The AUD group, on the other hand, showed higher emotional empathy compared to HCs but intact cognitive empathy. The GD group did not differ from HCs on cognitive measures, but they outperformed the AUD group on the cognitive flexibility task. Specific correlations between cognitive and empathy measures were observed in both clinical groups.

Conclusion: The behavioral empathy results showed a dissociation between cognitive and emotional empathy impairments in the two different types of addiction, suggesting distinct foci for therapeutic interventions.

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赌博障碍患者的共情障碍。

导读：尽管在物质使用障碍中有充分的共情障碍，并且在神经生物学和认知功能上与行为成瘾如赌博障碍（GD）有显著的重叠，但对GD中的共情障碍知之甚少。本研究旨在探讨焦虑患者的认知共情和情感共情及其与认知功能的关系。方法：采用人际反应指数（自我报告测量）和多方面共情测试（行为测量）来评估认知和情感共情，以及三项临床和三项认知测量，对25名被诊断为GD的寻求治疗的个体，25名最近被诊断为酒精使用障碍（AUD）的解毒患者和25名健康对照（hc）进行评估。结果：与AUD组相比，GD组在自我报告共情方面得分较低。此外，使用行为测量，GD组表现出较低的认知共情，但情感共情完好。另一方面，与hc相比，AUD组表现出更高的情感共情，但认知共情完好无损。GD组在认知测量上与hc组没有差异，但他们在认知灵活性任务上优于AUD组。在两个临床组中都观察到认知和共情测量之间的特定相关性。结论：行为共情结果显示两种不同类型成瘾的认知和情感共情障碍之间存在分离，表明治疗干预的重点不同。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology 医学-临床神经学

CiteScore

3.20

自引率

4.50%

发文量

审稿时长

6-12 weeks

期刊介绍： Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology ( JCEN) publishes research on the neuropsychological consequences of brain disease, disorders, and dysfunction, and aims to promote the integration of theories, methods, and research findings in clinical and experimental neuropsychology. The primary emphasis of JCEN is to publish original empirical research pertaining to brain-behavior relationships and neuropsychological manifestations of brain disease. Theoretical and methodological papers, critical reviews of content areas, and theoretically-relevant case studies are also welcome.