Jean-Marc Triffaux

Decline of empathy among medical students: Dehumanization or useful coping process?

OBJECTIVESnEmpathy is central in patient-physician interactions and understanding its development is decisive for education. However, scientific literatures report a striking decline of empathy among medical students during their study course. Firstly, we aimed to replicate this result on a Belgian population. Secondly, as well reported by literature, we expected higher empathy scores for women. Lastly, as central, we expected higher empathy levels for medical students than for control students (commercial students were used as a control group: social interactions without a curing aspect) at the beginning of their study course, suggesting that empathy drives students to select specific education fields.nnnMETHODSnThrough a cross-sectional design, we assessed students from medical and commercial educations at different years of study with the Basic Empathy Scale (N=1602). We compared: (1) empathy scores at different scholar levels for both populations; (2) scores between men and women; (3) empathy scores between medical and commercial students in their first year of study.nnnRESULTSnAs expected, a significant empathy decline was displayed over time for medical students; women reported significant higher empathy scores than men; and, in their first year, medical students presented significant higher empathy scores than commercials.nnnCONCLUSIONSnReplicating the empathy decline on several student populations is crucial, especially by using different tools. This decline is a multi-factorial process that mainly reflects self-representation changes. The empathy gender bias is a strong effect observed in several empathy-linked phenomena. Finally, empathy is not only central but also drives students to select specific education fields.

Humor Associated With Positive Outcomes in Individual Psychotherapy

Considerable anecdotal evidence points to the usefulness of humor in the therapeutic process, but empirical evidence is lacking. The purpose of this study, conducted in Belgium, was to search for an association between humor and therapy outcomes in a population of 110 adult psychotherapy clients who attended at least 10 therapy sessions. Clients and their therapist evaluated the frequency and intensity of humorous events, as well as therapy effectiveness, therapeutic alliance, perceived hope, and pleasure in participating in therapy sessions. A strong positive correlation was observed between humor and therapy effectiveness, from both client (rs=0.40; p<0.001) and therapist perspectives (rs=0.37; p<0.001). The link between humor and therapy effectiveness remained significant in subgroups of clients with more severe illness, although these clients reported less humor in their therapy sessions. Further research is needed to determine whether humor enhances outcomes or whether positive outcomes trigger occurrence of humor.