Meta-analysis of associations between empathy and alcohol use and problems in clinical and non-clinical samples.

"DECLARATION OF INTERESTS None."

"Funding information U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; National Institutes of Health; National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Grant/Award Number: R01 AA025936"

"We report methodology in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐analyses (PRISMA) guidelines [] (see Table ) and following a pre‐registered International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) protocol (http://www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/, registration number CRD42021225392). Literature searches were conducted in December 2020 and August 2021, using the databases Pubmed, PsycINFO and Google Scholar to identify relevant studies published since January 1970, with search terms including [empathy] and [alcohol]. Searches were limited for two of the databases, such that keywords had to appear in the title for Google Scholar searches and in the title or abstract for PsycInfo searches. The reference lists of identified studies were also scanned, and reverse searches were generated and scanned for appropriate studies. To be included in the meta‐analyses, studies had to either provide data on empathy in AUD samples compared to healthy controls or provide data on the associations between empathy and alcohol use or problems in non‐clinical samples. Inclusion was not limited by study location (i.e. country in which the study took place). Exclusionary criteria included non‐human animal, non‐English language and non‐peer‐reviewed/unpublished studies. Method: PsycINFO, PubMed and Google Scholar were searched following a pre‐registered International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) protocol (CRD42021225392) and Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta‐Analyses (PRISMA) methodology. We meta‐analyzed (using random‐effects models) mean differences in empathy between individuals with AUD compared with healthy controls and associations between empathy and alcohol consumption and alcohol problems in non‐clinical samples. A total of 714 participants were included in the meta‐analysis on clinical samples; 3955 were included in the meta‐analyses on non‐clinical samples."