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KMID : 0605720070130020222
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Journal of the Korean Society of Biological Therapies in Psychiatry
2007 Volume.13 No. 2 p.222 ~ p.231
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Theory of Mind and Empathy in Schizophrenia
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Park Jae-Wan
Yoo Byung-Kuk
Kwon Sung-Min
Kim Tae-Soon
Kim Yang-Tae
Kwon Do-Hoon
Cho Sung-Nam
Kim Hee-Sook
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Abstract
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Purpose: Human are intensely social creatures. One crucial capacity for social interaction is to understand the mental and emotional state of others. While theory of mind refers to our ability to understand mental states such as intentions and beliefs, empathy means the capacity to share the feelings of others. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are deficits of theory of mind as well as empathy in schizophrenic patients, and whether mentalizing and empathizing ability are correlated within schizophrenia. In addition, it was aimed to examine whether impairments in theory of mind and empathy are related to working memory.
Methods: Twenty-four stable schizophrenic patients and thirty-one healthy subjects participated in this study. Psychiatric patients were recruited from the Department of Psychiatry of Bugok National Hospital. Consensus diagnoses, according to DSM-Ⅳ criteria, were obtained by two psychiatrists. Normal controls were chosen based on age, sex, education and IQ similarities with schizophrenic patients. All participants were administrated to the Picture Sequencing Task(PST), as measure of theory of mind, and the Emotion Attribution Task(EAT), as assessment of empathy. They also underwent computerized versions of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test(WCST).
Results: The schizophrenic group performed poorly on both the PST and the EAT relative to controls. There was a significant association between the PST and the EAT in the schizophrenic group. We also couldn’t find any relations between mind reading ability and working memory within schizophrenia.
Conclusion: These data suggest that schizophrenia have the impairments of theory of mind and empathy, that mentalizing and empathizing ability are correlated, and that impaired working memory does not account for the deficits of theory of mind and empathy in schizophrenia.
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KEYWORD
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Schizophrenia, Theory of mind, Empathy, Picture sequencing task, Emotion attribution task
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