Depression affects around 4–10% of the general population in England. Depression can often lead to behaviors and thoughts related to suicide and aggression, which have a social and economic burden to the United Kingdom. One construct that has been theorized as having an association with these behaviors is alexithymia. People with alexithymia have difficulties identifying and describing their emotional experiences. To date, there is no consensus on types or causes of alexithymia. Whilst the literature evidences a strong relationship between alexithymia and suicidality and aggression, little is known about the nature of this relationship. The present article will attempt to describe the extant literature on this relationship, drawing out some of the contentions and unanswered questions.
Highlights
Alexithymia is more closely related to suicide ideation than to suicide behaviour.
The subcomponents of difficulty identifying and describing feelings are more closely related to suicide ideation and behaviour than the subcomponent of externally oriented thinking.
The relationship between alexithymia and suicide ideation appears robust when controlling for confounding variables, though the relationship between suicide behaviour and alexithymia is not so robust.
Future research should aim to examine causality in this relationship through using longitudinal designs.
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