Empathy in Dementia: A Comparative Study in Vascular and Alzheimer\'s Dementia

Background: A formal definition of empathy is the ability to identify and understand another's situation, feelings and impulse. Mirror neurons in frontal lobe are great contributors to empathic behavior. In addition, memory functions and recognition of facial expression must be intact for healthy empathic behavior.Methods: Thirty cases of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), 30 cases of vascular dementia (VD) 24 volunteers without dementia were enrolled to the study. The diagnose of AD was established according to DSM-IV and NINCDS-ADRDA criterias, the diagnose of VD was established NINDS-AIREN criterias. Staging of dementia was made according to clinical dementia rating scale (CDR) and cases with the scores  between 0.5-1 were included in the study. Mini mental status test (MMST), geriatric depression scale (GDS) and Turkish validated empathic tendency scale (ETS) were applied to all cases.  Results: There was no statistical meaningfull correlation according to age, sex, duration of education, and GDS scores among the groups. MMST score was lower in AD and VD groups than  the  controls. ETS scores were found as 71,91 in AD, 70 in VD, 72 in control group. These results were suggest no statistical differences between groups according to empathic scores. Conclusion: Our study was established by mild dementia cases. Empathic tendency may be effected in advanced cases. Further studies are needed including more patients and neuro-anatomical correlates.