Increased affective empathy in bipolar patients during a manic episode

Objective: To assess both cognitive and affective empathy in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) during an acute manic or depressive episode. Methods: The study included 25 patients with BD (aged 35±14 years) during an acute manic episode, 25 bipolar patients (aged 41±14 years) during a depressive episode, and 25 healthy control subjects (aged 36±11 years). Cognitive and affective empathy were assessed using the Multifaceted Empathy Test. Results: In both manic and depressive patients, a significant deficit in cognitive empathy was demonstrated. However, indices of affective empathy were...