Prosocial Emotional Responding to Others’ Suffering in Bipolar Disorder

Bipolar disorder is a severe psychiatric disorder characterized by socioemotional difficulties. Few studies have examined prosocial aspects of social functioning in bipolar disorder, including the ability to empathically respond to others’ emotions. The present investigation recruited adults with bipolar I disorder (BD; n = 29) and a non-psychiatric control group (CTL; n = 25) who completed a validated empathic responding task (Ashar et al., 2016, 2017) that measures both self-reported affective responses and prosocial behaviors (i.e., charitable donations) in response to others’ suffering. Results suggest that the BD and CTL groups do not differ in either affective responses or prosocial behaviors. Several possible interpretations of these findings are discussed, including a growing strengths-based perspective, an empathic sensitization perspective, or that empathic responding is not affected in BD. Clinical implications of these initial findings and avenues for further investigation are discussed.