Binge-Drinkers Show Less Empathy to the Pain of Others

People who engage in binge-drinking show more extensive dysfunction across their brains and need to put more effort into feeling empathy for other people who are in pain finds a new study from the University of Sussex has shown.

The paper titled "Differential brain responses for perception of pain during empathic response in binge drinkers compared to non-binge drinkers" is published the Neuroimage: Clinical journal.

Alcohol Use Disorder | Alcoholism
Alcohol use disorder or alcoholism is an inability to control drinking. It can cause short term and long term physical, as well as psychological effects on the patient.

‘Individuals who engage in binge drinking behaviors show impaired empathy, characterized by a reduced ability to understand and respond appropriately to others' feelings.’
Read More..

Tweet it Now

Binge-drinking is defined as consuming more than 60gms of pure alcohol, that equals about three-quarters of one bottle of wine, or 2½ pints of lager, on at least one occasion in the past 30 days. In the UK and France, around 30% of all adults over 15 years of age are considered binge-drinkers.

For the study, 71 people were enrolled. Half of them were binge-drinkers while the other half were not. The binge-drinkers were sober during the study. Their brain activity was observed using fMRI while undertaking a pain perception task.

The participants were shown an image of a limb being injured and then asked to imagine the body part as being either theirs or that of another person. They were then asked to state how much pain was associated with the image.

Alcohol Abuse - Alcohol Addiction - Treatment � Rehab among Woman
Social drinking amongst women has become a fad. Stop it before it finishes you.

When the binge-drinkers were asked to imagine the injury happening to their own body, their pain estimate was similar to that of non-binge-drinkers.

On the other hand, the binge-drinkers struggled more than their non-binge-drinking counterparts while gauging another person's pain. It took more time for them to respond, and brain scans revealed that their brains had to work harder. Binge-drinkers had to use more neural resources to appreciate how intensely another person would feel pain.

Alcohol Effects After Bariatric Surgery
Gastric sleeve and gastric bypass surgery potentiate the intoxicating effects of alcohol due to its faster rate of absorption into the blood and slower metabolism.

There were high levels of widespread activity in a visual area of the brain, called Fusiform Body Area, that is used to recognize body parts among binge-drinkers when asked to empathize. Among non-binge drinkers, this widespread dysfunction was not observed.

When the binge-drinkers were asked to imagine the injured body part in the picture as their own, their pain estimate was not different from that of their non-binge drinking counterparts.

Alcohol and Driving-Blood Alcohol Level-Indian Law-Walk Test and Breathalyzer
Alcohol and driving do not mix. Drunken driving is the cause of many deaths in the world.

It is known that binge-drinking is associated with brain dysfunction in areas supporting self-control and attention. But the recent study has shown that binge drinkers need to work their brain more in order to feel empathetic towards others in pain.

Reduced empathy in binge-drinkers may further encourage drinking as it can blur the perception of the suffering during a drinking session.

Dr. Charlotte Rae from the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex said, "Our data show that binge-drinkers need to work harder to feel empathy for other people in pain. They need to use more resources in terms of higher brain activity than non-binge drinkers. What this means in everyday life is that people who binge-drink might struggle to perceive the pain of others as easily as non-binge drinkers do.

Binge-drinkers have to put more brain resources in order to feel empathy.

Source-Medindia