Capacity for Cognitive and Emotional Empathy in Alcohol-Dependent Patients

This study assessed two facets of empathy never explored before in male alcohol-dependent patients (ADs) divided into two groups according to Cloninger’s typology of alcoholism: the attribution of intentions according to emotional facial expressions (EFEs) and emotional contagion in reaction to EFEs. Twenty three type I ADs, 21 type II ADs, and 24 controls were compared in two computerized tasks. First, the participants had to rate to what extent an adjective descriptive of personality weighted on the interpersonal dimensions of rejection, aggressiveness, dominance, and affiliation corresponded to a film changing from a neutral EFE to an intense EFE. Second, they had to evaluate their own emotional state after watching a series of films depicting EFEs while their own face was being filmed. The results showed that ADs attributed more intentions of rejection and fewer intentions of affiliation to EFEs of men compared to male controls and that this biased attribution was largely due to depression. Furthermore, AD subtypes showed a different pattern of intention attribution according to the emotions portrayed and according to the sex of the stimulus. In addition, the mimicry of angry EFEs was stronger in type II ADs than in other participants. Finally, ADs expressed fewer positive emotions and more negative emotions than controls when watching EFEs. Our findings outline the importance of differentiation in terms of alcoholism subtype, and contribute to the understanding of the interpersonal behaviors of ADs.