Empathy

 Empathy
There is little research on empathy concerning mood disorders. In the few studies available, empathy appears to be increased in depressed patients . Why this is so is still unclear and what impact this enhanced empathy produces in the lives of depressed patients is unknown.
In bipolar disorders, very few studies examine empathy . One study found cognitive inflexibility associated with impairments of frontal neurocognitive tasks . Functional neuroimaging suggests involvement of limbic structures (such as the amygdala, the inferior frontal gyrus, the medial orbitofrontal cortex, left anterior cingulate, medial rostral cortex ,and the precuneus / cuneus areas bilaterally) as possible substrates of empathy in bipolarity . Patients with bipolar disorder have been shown to report lower compassion rates, a relative of sympathy, compared to a non-clinical control group. Compassion predicted decreased mania severity at 6 month follow-up, suggesting it may serve as a protective factor in bipolar disorder . No studies to date relate empathy in bipolar disorder to the number of episodes or illness characteristics.