The Intervention Study Of RTMS On Abnormal Empathy In Schizophrenias

Objective The present studies proved that schizophrenias exist extensive social cognitive impairment which is the reason why schizophrenias have abnormal social function.Empathy is an important component of social cognition.Studying empathic ability in schizophrenias and their first-degree relatives is helpful to understand the neuropsychological mechanism of social dysfunction in schizophrenias,and at the same time provides the evidence for further investigating whether abnormal empathy become phenotype of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia.Empathy ability can be improved by intervention like physical intervention,cognitive behavioral intervention and so on.As a new noninvasive method of physical therapy,r TMS technology become a more and more important treatment method.This study explored the effect of low-frequency r TMS intervention on empathic ability in schizophrenias.Methods Study 1: Thirty five schizophrenic patients,33 education-and aged-matched healthy first-degree relatives and 34 controls were tested by cognitive tests,IRI-C scale,pain empathy paradigm.All tasks indexes in three groups were compared by statistical analysis.Study 2: Twenty two schizophrenic patients were treated by low-frequency r TMS which using c TBS stimulation mode,accurately positioning on the left side of the TPJ and persisting continuous 15 days.Before and after the intervention,subjects were tested by cognitive tests,IRI-C scale,pain empathy paradigm,and all task indexes were compared with 22 gender-,aged-,education-matched controls before and after the intervention.Through self-matching test,comparing the scores of intervention group.Results Study 1: Schizophrenic patients’ IRI-C total scores,PT scores,FS scores,EC scores were significantly lower than the control group,their EC scores were significantly lower than relatives group.The FS scores of relatives group were significantly lower than control group.Patients’ accuracy of judging pain pictures were significantly lower than the control,and their reaction time of judging neutral and pain pictures were both significantly longer than control group.Patients’ clinical negative symptom scores were negative correlation with accuracy of judging and rating of pain pictures.Study 2: Patients’ IRI-C scale total scores(p = 0.004),PT scores(p = 0.000),EC scores(p = 0.015),accuracy of judging pain pictures(p = 0.000)became significantly higher,while their PANSS total scores(p = 0.000),positive symptom scores(p = 0.000),and negative symptoms scores(p = 0.001)became significantly lower after intervention.Conclusion Schizophrenia patients’ empathy and pain empathy ability were significantly lower than controls,and FS ability of their first-degree relatives were lower than controls.r TMS intervention can improve schizophrenic patients’ empathic ability.