New paper by Dahna Choi: When Being Social Is Costly: Empathy's Role for Risk States, Acute Symptoms, and Cumulative Disease Severity of Depression

We congratulate Dahna Choi on a new publication in the Journal of Clinical Psychology!

In this study, patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) were investigated regarding alterations in empathic distress, empathic concern, and perspective-taking. In extension to previous binary comparisons between patients and healthy participants, we investigated these potential alterations at dissociable risk and disease states.

Our findings reveal empathic distress to be associated with both acute MDD and longer-term MDD progression. Moreover, results indicate a generalized heightened emotional attunement during acute MDD, entailing both empathic concern and empathic distress. We could not find conclusive evidence on the role of empathic distress at risk states of MDD nor of altered perspective-taking overall.

Given that interpersonal difficulties frequently impose a high burden upon patients, we hope that our findings might prospectively contribute to improve psychotherapeutic interventions that target maladaptive empathic processes.

Choi, D., P. L. Usemann, K. Förster, et al. 2026. “ When Being Social Is Costly: Empathy's Role for Risk States, Acute Symptoms, and Cumulative Disease Severity of Depression.” Journal of Clinical Psychology 82: 1650–1660. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.70190.