[Empathy deficit in adolescents : how to characterize and evaluate it clinically ? A litterature review].
Introduction : empathy has been considered since a long time under the angle of human sciences. Today, certain neuro-scientific postulates complement this knowledge.
Context : observation of adolescents presenting psychiatric disorders, accompagnied by conduct disorders and/or psychopathic traits, frequently describe empathy deficits ; nurses should evaluate the nature and the degree of empathy of these adolescents.
Aims : this litterature review aims to expose the clinical characteristics of empathy deficit from its definition and to describe the clinical evaluation tools.
Method : target population of this review is children and adolescents from twelve to eighteen years old. The review was carried out with PubMed, CINAHL and PsycINFO, from 2002 to 2012.
Results : twenty-two articles were retained. Empathy is defined as a mechanism combining several components of neuronal activity. Empathy includes a cognitive component, an affective component which are based on a neurofunctional dysfunctional substrate when there is a deficit of empathy.
Three evaluation scales are distinguished : the Basic empathy scale, the Interpersonal reactivity index and the Griffith empathy measure.
Discussion : three evaluation tools present the validity and reliability criteria for clinical use.
Conclusion : the development of evidence based practices should confirm the interest of these tools for nurses.
Mélanie
M
Piñon
Aline
A
Forestier
Marc
M
Diby
D000293:Adolescent; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000145:classification / Q000175:diagnosis*; D019937:Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures; D004645:Empathy / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans