Characteristics of empathy and psychopathy among pathological Internet users and opiate-dependent persons

milica jelkić; Mirko  Dolić; Ivana  Popović; Bojan  Nikolić; Igor  Radulović; Ksenija  Kolundžija; gordana mandic gajic

doi:10.2298/VSP160427285J

milica jelkić Clinic of psychiatry- Military medical academy Belgrade
Mirko Dolić Military Medical Academy,*Clinic of Psychiatry, Belgrade, Serbia
Ivana Popović Military Medical Academy,*Clinic of Psychiatry, Belgrade, Serbia
Bojan Nikolić Military Medical Academy,*Clinic of Psychiatry, Belgrade, Serbia
Igor Radulović University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad, Serbia
Ksenija Kolundžija University of Novi Sad, Faculty of Medicine, Novi Sad, Serbia; Clinical Center of Vojvodina, Clinic of Psychiatry, Novi Sad, Serbia
gordana mandic gajic

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2298/VSP160427285J

Keywords: empathy;, antisocial personality disorder, internet;, opioid related disorders.

Abstract

Background/Aim. The debate about diagnostic criteria for differences and similiraties as psychosocial characteristics of pathological Internet users and Internet and substance addicts still continued. The aim of the study was to investigate the differences between empathy and psychopathy among subjects with pathological Internet use (PIU) and opiate dependence. Methods. The cross sectional study was performed at the Methadone Center of the Clinical Centre of Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia, with 40 consecutively recruited patients with opiate dependence (OD group) and compared to age matched (25 to 35 years) random online recruited subjects (n = 80). They were divided into two groups: 40 subjects with PIU and 40 controls according to cut-off score of 39 or less obtained at Questionnaire regarding the Internet use assessment. The questionnaires for sociodemographic data, Emotion Specific Empathy (EMI) questionnaire and Psychopathy Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ) were applied. Descriptive statistics, χ²-tests, ANOVA and MANOVA analysis were used for data assessment which was performed by the SPSS software (version 20.0) and p < 0.05 was applied. Results. There were more differences among psychopathy dimensions than empathy dimensions among PIU subjects, controls and heroin dependent subjects. The PIU group demonstrated the lowest psychopathy dimensions except for the lifestyle dimension which was higher than in the control group. On the contrary, the PIU group showed the highest empathy, with two dimensions as the most prominent ones: empathy with negative emotions and emotional reactions provoked by empathy. Conclusion. The PIU subjects are characterized by high empathy and low psychopathy. These findings suggest that it would be useful to consider seriously the dimensions of empathy and psychopathy when developing strategies to prevent PIU and planning educational programs for persons with problems related to the Internet overuse disorder.

References

References:

Öztürk C, Bektas M, Ayar D, Özgüven ÖB, Yağcı D. Associa¬tion of Personality Traits and Risk of Internet Ad¬diction in Adolescents. Asian Nurs Res (Korean Soc Nurs Sci) 2015; 9(2): 120‒4.

Starcevic V, Aboujaoude E. Internet addiction: Reappraisal of an increasingly inadequate concept. CNS Spectr 2017; 22(1): 7‒13.

Van Rooij AJ, Prause N. A critical review of "Internet addic-tion" criteria with suggestions for the future. J Behav Addict 2014; 3(4): 203‒13.

Brezing C, Jeffrey L, Derevensky JL, Marc N, Potenza MN. Non-substance-addictive behaviors in youth: Pathological gambling and problematic Internet use. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am 2010; 19(3): 625‒41.

Mazza TF, Autullo G, Cappelluti R, Catalano V, Marano G, Fui-mana V, et al. Is Internet addiction a psychopathologi¬cal con-dition distinct from pathological gambling? Addict Behav 2014; 39(6): 1052‒6.

Derntl B, Finkelmeyer A, Eickhoff S, Kellermann T, Falken¬berg DI, Schneider F, et al. Multidimensional assessment of empathic abilities: Neural correlates and gender differ¬ences. Psychoneuroendocrinology 2010; 35(1): 67‒82.

Lockwood PL, Apps MA, Roiser JP, Viding E. Encoding of Vi-carious Reward Prediction in Anterior Cingulate Cor¬tex and Relationship with Trait Empathy. Journal of neu¬roscience 2015; 35(40): 13720‒7.

Vachon DD, Lynam DR. Fixing the problem with empathy de-velopment and validation of the affective and cognitive meas-ure of empathy. Assessment 2016; 23(2): 135‒49.

Chialant D, Edersheim J, Price BH. The dialectic between empa-thy and violence: An opportunity for intervention? J Neurop-sychiatry Clin Neurosci 2016; appineuro¬psych15080207. (In Press)

Hinić D. Evaluation of the internet use disorder scale. Psi-hologija 2012; 45(3): 311‒25. (Serbian)

Genc A, Mitrović D, Čolović P. Assessment of readiness for em-pathy. In: Biro M, Smederevac S, Novović Z, editors. As¬sessment of psychological and psychopathological phe¬nomenons. Bel-grade: Center for Applied Psychology; 2010. p. 141‒51. (Ser-bian)

Biro M, Smederevac S, Novović Z. Antisocial behavior: Di-mension or category(ies)? Psihologija 2008; 41(3): 275‒93. (Serbian)

Koo HJ, Kwon JH. Risk and protective factors of internet addic-tion: A meta-analysis of empirical studies in Korea. Yonsei Med J 2014; 55(6): 1691‒711.

Internet World Stats. Internet usage statistics. 2013. [Inter-net]. April 10. [cited 2015 May 25]. Available from: http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.html

Yen JY, Yen CF, Chen CC, Chen SH, Ko CH. Family factors of internet addiction and substance use experience in Tai¬wanese adolescents. Cyberpsychol Behav 2007; 10(3): 323‒9.

Christakis DA, Moreno MM, Jelenchick L, Myaing MT, Zhou C. Problematic internet usage in US college students: a pi¬lot study. BMC Med 2011; 9: 77.

Melchers M, Li M, Chen Y, Zhang W, Montag C. Low empa¬thy is associated with problematic use of the Internet: Em¬pirical evi-dence from China and Germany. Asian J Psy¬chiatr 2015; 17: 56‒60.

Kuss DJ, Griffiths MD, Karila L, Billieux J. Internet addic¬tion: A systematic review of epidemiological research for the last decade. Curr Pharm Des 2014; 20(25): 4026‒52.

Brezing C, Derevensky JL, Potenza MN. Non-substance-addic-tive behaviors in youth: pathological gambling and problematic Internet use. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am 2010; 19(3): 625‒41.

Liu T, Potenza MN. Problematic Internet use: clinical impli-cations. CNS Spectr 2007; 12(6): 453‒66.

Li W, O'Brien JE, Snyder SM, Howard MO. Characteristics of internet addiction/pathological internet use in U. S. university students: A qualitative-method investigation. PLoS One 2015; 10(2): e117372.

Dong G, Lu Q, Zhou H, Zhao X. Precursor or sequela: patho-logical disorders in people with Internet addiction disorder. PLoS One 2011; 6(2): e14703.

Moreno MA, Jelenchick LA, Christakis DA. Problematic inter-net use among older adolescents: a conceptual frame¬work. Comput Hum Behav 2013; 29(1): 1879‒87.