OBJECTIVES Alexithymia is highly prevalent among chronic pain patients. Pain is a remarkable cause for high levels of chronic anxiety. The purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of alexithymia and to determine anxiety levels among DSM-IV somatoform pain disorder (chronic pain) female patients and to examine the relationship between alexithymia and the self-reporting of pain. ...

BACKGROUND Alexithymia, a condition characterized by deficits in interpreting and regulating feelings, is a risk factor for a variety of psychiatric conditions. Little is known about how alexithymia influences the processing of emotions in music and speech. Appreciation of such emotional qualities in auditory material is fundamental to human experience and has profound consequences for function...

BACKGROUND Even though patients with depression often show significant alexithymia, the underlying mechanism of their alexithymia remains unclear. Furthermore, few experimental studies have explored their ability to regulate emotions. OBJECTIVE To explore the characteristics of alexithymia in patients with depression, and the relationship of depressive symptoms, alexithymia and emotion regula...

BACKGROUND Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major health problem, especially in adults over 40 years of age, and has a great social and economic impact. The psychological morbidity of COPD patients with regard to anxiety and depressive symptoms has been extensively studied in the past. However, few studies have investigated the prevalence of alexithymia in these patients, as we...

BACKGROUND Although alexithymia is associated with several psychiatric disorders, there has been little research into the effects of psychodynamic psychotherapies on this condition. Here, the influence of inpatient multimodal psychodynamic psychotherapy on alexithymia and symptom load was evaluated in a large sample of patients. METHODS Alexithymia [measured with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale...

OBJECTIVE To assess the association of alexithymia (deficit in emotional awareness) with 12-month prevalence of low back pain (LBP) cross-sectionally in a cohort study of 1180 San Francisco transit operators. METHODS Alexithymia was measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). LBP was assessed in medical histories during drivers relicensing exams. Multivariate logistic regression analy...

The authors developed a relatively brief observer alexithymia measure that can be used by patients' acquaintances and relatives. Items corresponding to the defining features of alexithymia (California Q-Set Alexithymia Prototype) were written, and the new instrument's psychometric properties were evaluated in 3 lay-rater samples. The 33-item Observer Alexithymia Scale (OAS) is internally consis...

This cross-sectional study investigated the mediatory role of experiential avoidance in the relationship between perceived stress and alexithymia with mental health. We enrolled 440 students (age 18-30 years) at Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences through stratified random sampling method. The study tools were demographic checklist, GHQ-28, Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 and Perceived Stres...

Very little research with adolescents has examined the extent that alexithymia is distinctive from other potentially overlapping self-evaluative traits, or the extent that it is related to social and emotional wellbeing. Teenagers in Grade 8 (N = 796) completed self-report measures of alexithymia, self-esteem, trait hope, social support, and emotional well-being. Teachers also rated each studen...

Background: Headache is one of the most common complaints in children and adolescents and comorbidity rates are very high and the major associated diseases are depression, anxiety, atopic disorders, sleep, and behavioral disorders. In recent years, it has been highlighted that difficulties regulating emotions such as alexithymia have also been associated with diagnosis of somatization. Methods:...