Culture of Empathy Builder: Issidoros Sarinopoulos


Issidoros Sarinopoulos and Edwin Rutsch: How to Build a Culture of Empathy Without Pain
		Issidoros Sarinopoulos (Sid) is Assistant Professor of Psychology at Michigan State University where he is director of the Lab for Social and Affective Neuroscience. Sid's research interests include the psychological and neural underpinnings of emotion, judgment, decision making, and social behavior. His work integrates the theories and methods of affective and social neuroscience on the one hand, and more traditional disciplines in the social sciences on the other.
Sid was part of a study looking at how an empathic doctor-patient relationship reduces patients pain. Listen up, doc: Empathy raises patients’ pain tolerance. "A doctor-patient relationship built on trust and empathy doesn’t just put patients at ease – it actually changes the brain’s response to stress and increases pain tolerance, according to new findings from a Michigan State University research team... This is the first study that has looked at the patient-centered relationship from a neurobiological point of view,” said Sarinopoulos, the lead researcher. “It’s important for doctors and others who advocate this type of relationship with the patient to show that there is a biological basis.” Sub Conferences: Health Care and Science

Dec. 3, 2012 - Listen up, doc: Empathy raises patients’ pain tolerance
"A doctor-patient relationship built on trust and empathy doesn’t just put patients at ease – it actually changes the brain’s response to stress and increases pain tolerance, according to new findings from an MSU research team.

“We need to do more research to understand this mechanism,” he said, “but this is a good first step that puts some scientific weight behind the case for empathizing with patients, getting to know them and building trust.”

Published in the journal Patient Education and Counseling, the study was part of a broader effort at MSU, led by professor of medicine Robert Smith, to establish standards for patient-centered health care and measure its effectiveness."

Doctor’s empathy increases patient’s pain tolerance
"Empathy, or the ability to understand and share the feelings or another individual, may improve pain management in patients, changing the brain’s response to stress. According to a new study from Michigan State University, doctor’s empathy tend to lead to better patient outcomes, though the exact mechanism for the altered patient brain response is still unknown."

Doc's Empathy Eases Pain
"Previous research has shown that doctors who listen carefully have happier patients with better health outcomes, but the underlying mechanism was unknown. A release from the university quotes investigator Issidoros Sarinopoulos as saying, “This is the first study that has looked at the patient-centered relationship from a neurobiological point of view. It’s important for doctors and others who advocate this type of relationship with the patient to show that there is a biological basis.”"

The New Painkiller? An Empathetic Doctor
"Doctors who take the time to listen and understand what their patients are going through could actually have a positive effect on their patients' pain tolerance and stress levels, according to a small new study.
The Michigan State University research showed that doctor-patient empathy is linked with decreased activity of the anterior insula region of the brain -- the region responsible for pain awareness..."But this is a good first step that puts some scientific weight behind the case for empathizing with patients, getting to know them and building trust.""