engleski

Why can't medicine exist without empathy?

Empathy was first described in the social psychology domain in the middle of the twentieth century as a capacity to think and feel into the inner life of another person. Throughout history of research, the concept of empathy has gradually evolved from a cognitive aspect to one that includes affective, imaginative, behavioural and relational dimensions. Altough empathy has been viewed as an ambiguous concept, recent studies show developing consensus among authors that empathy involves understanding, feeling, sharing what someone else feels, and self-other differentiation. Circuits connecting the brainstem, amygdala, basal ganglia, anterior cingulate cortex, insula and orbitofrontal cortex form the neural basis od empathy, and neurobiological studies have described empathy using a model that includes two modes of processing: bottom-up neural processing, which enables mirroring representation systems that play a key role in the direct sharing of the emotional states of others, and top-down neural processing, used in undestanding the feelings of others. In the clinical setting, empathy was described as a sense of connection between the healthcare worker and the patient as a result of perspective taking arising from imaginative, affective and cognitive processes, expressed through behaviours and communication skills that convey genuine concern - connection conspicuous in psychodynamic oriented therapy. Some studies have shown that empathy declines during medical training, but there is also evidence about increased empathy during undergraduate education of medical students that highlights the potential importance of empathy training within education. Studies have shown that empathy can improve both the quality and experience of care for patients and healthcare professionals. The effectiveness of empathy in patient–physician communication is described also as improvement of patient satisfaction and adherence, decrease of anxiety and distress, better diagnostic and clinical outcomes, and more patient enablement.

Empathy, medicine, clinical empathy

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