Table 3.
Overview of studies investigating experience sharing and empathy in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
| Domain | Author | Method | Participants | Comorbid diagnosis? | Concurrent medication/therapy? | Task/questionnaire | Subdomain | Diagnosis/symptom assessment | Main results |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Empathy | |||||||||
| Fontenelle et al. (102) | Case-control | OCD = 53 [39.3 ± 13.8, 29M:36F]; HC = 53 [35.5 ± 13.0, 24M:46F] | MDD (n=19), SP (n=3), DD (n=3). | SSRIs (n=42), benzodiazepine (n=21), antipsychotic (n=17). Therapy: CBT (n=17). | IRI | Cognitive empathy (PT and FT) + affective empathy (EC and PD) |
SCID/OCI-R | Compared to HC, patients showed higher levels of EC (p=0.006) and PD (p < 0.001). Within patients, hoarding symptoms correlated with EC (r=0.39; p < 0.001), FT (r=0.36; p < 0.01), and PD (r=0.39; p < 0.001). After adjusting for covariates, only the association between hoarding and FT remained (r=0.41; p < 0.001). | |
| Kang et al. (103) | Case-control | OCD = 107 [27.5 ± 9.22, 72M:35F]; HC = 130 [26.0 ± 4.8, 82M/48F] | MDD (n=20), SP (n=5), BDD (n=20, panic disorder (n=1). | All patients were taking medications. Therapy not reported. | IRI | Cognitive empathy (PT and FT) + affective empathy (EC and PD) | SCID/Y-BOCS | Patients with OCD showed significantly lower PT (p=0.003) and higher PD (p=0.001) compared to HC. PD correlated significantly with forbidden thoughts symptoms (r=0.254, p=0.017) after correcting for gender, anxiety and depression levels. | |
| Pino et al. (78) | Case-control | OCD = 24 [39.1 ± 12.9, 12M:11F]; HC = 23 [38.7 ± 11.9,13M:11F] | Comorbid disorders were considered as exclusion criteria. | Not reported. | BES, EQ, EAT | Cognitive (BES cognitive, EQ, EAT) and affective empathy (BES affective) | SCID/Y-BOCS | OCD patients scored lower than controls on the EQ (p < 0.001), cognitive subscale of the BES (p=0.020) and attribution of negative emotions except disgust in the EAT (ps <0.005). There also was a positive relation between the cognitive BES subscale and Y-BOCS obsessions (r=−0.423, p=0.002) and compulsions (r=−0.420, p=0.003).subscales. No differences were found between patients and HC on the affective empathy subscale of the BES. | |
| Motor resonance | |||||||||
| Kim et al. (54) | Case-control Outpatients |
OCD = 20 [24.3 ± 6.2, 12M:8F]; HC = 16 [23.2 ± 5.8, 11M:5F] | Not reported. | Sertraline (n=4), citalopram (n=6), fluoxetine (n=5), fluvoxamine (n=2), risperidone (n=5), olanzapine (n=1), clonazepam (n=14), valproic acid (n=1), and lamotrigine (n=1). Therapy not reported. | Biological motion detection and discrimination tasks | Biological motion perception | DSM-IV criteria/Y-BOCS | Patients found it more difficult to detect biological motion within noise dots (p=0.003) and to discriminate biological motion from scrambled motion (p=0.034), whereas their ability to perceive nonbiological global motion and static global form was comparable to HC. | |
| Jung et al. (53) | Case-control fMRI |
OCD = 15 [23.4 ± 4.7, 12M:3F]; HC = 15 [25.67 ± 3.46, 9M:6F] | Comorbid axis I diagnoses were considered exclusion criteria. | Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (n=2), SSRI + antianxiety (n=3), SSRI + antianxiety + anti-psychotics (n=3). Therapy not reported. | One-back task with biological and scrambled motion | Biological motion perception | SCID for DSM-II/Y-BOCS | Compared to HC, patients exhibited increased activation in the right superior and middle temporal gyrus, the left inferior temporal and fusiform gyrus and reduced activation in the right postcentral gyrus (p < 0.001, uncorrected). | |
| Rounis et al. (104) | Case-control Outpatients |
OCD = 24 [37.9 ± 14.7; 14M:10F] HC = 22 [37.4 ± 13.5; 12M:10F] |
Comorbid psychiatric disorders were considered exclusion criteria. | SSRI (n=15) and SSRI + antipsychotic (n=4). | Meaningless gesture imitation task, extracted from the Birmingham Cognitive Screen | Action imitation | MINI/Y-BOCS | Scores on hand and finger imitation gestures were significantly lower for patients compared to HC (p=0.001). There were no significant correlations of imitation scores with the Y-BOCS. | |
| Shin et al. (55) | Case-control Outpatients |
OCD = 54 [25.0 ± 6.5, 32M:22F]; HC = 42 [23.4 ± 4.6, 32M:10F] |
Comorbid axis I diagnoses were considered exclusion criteria. | Medication-naïve (n=24), medication-free for 4 weeks (n=30). Therapy not reported. | Body and face discrimination task | Recognition of faces and bodies | SCID | Compared to HC, patients were less accurate in discriminating human bodily postures (p < 0.001), but not in discriminating faces or chairs. | |
OCD, obsessive-compulsive disorder; HC, healthy controls; MDD, major depressive disorder; SP, social phobia; DD, dysthymic disorder; SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors; CBT, cognitive-behavioral therapy; IRI, Interpersonal reactivity index; PT, Perspective Taking; FT, Fantasy; EC, Empathic Concern; PD, Personal Distress; SCID, Structured Clinical Interview for DSM Axis I Disorders; OCI-R, Obsessive-compulsive Inventory Revised; BDD, Body dysmorphic disorder; BES, Basic Empathy Scale; EQ, Empathy Quotient; EAT, Emotion Attribution Task; Y-BOCS, Yale–Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; MINI, Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview.