The relationship between abnormal illness behavior, measured by the Illness Behavior Questionnaire and alexithymia, measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, was studied in four cohorts of subjects. The two measures overlap in that the more alexithymic subjects endorsed more disease conviction, hypochondriacal concern, affective inhibition, affective disturbance, and irritability. Denial was not related to alexithymia, which supports the construct validity of alexithymia. Regression models developed for the four cohorts that consisted of psychiatric outpatients, psychiatric inpatients, medically ill patients and controls differed to suggest that alexithymia state phenomena interact with trait characteristics.
The discharge diagnoses of 374 inpatients on a VA Medical Center general psychiatry ward were reviewed. Sixty-three (16.8%) were diagnosed as having posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The mean number of diagnoses was 2.9 for the PTSD group, compared with 1.4 for the non-PTSD patients. The most common comorbid conditions in the PTSD patients were alcohol abuse, unipolar major depression, substance abuse, atypical psychosis, and intermittent explosive disorder. All of these disorders except substance abuse occurred significantly more frequently in the PTSD patients than in those free of PTSD. Schizophrenia and organic mental disorders occurred significantly more frequently in the non-PTSD group. These results suggest a need for thorough psychiatric evaluation in patients with PTSD and the need to evaluate for PTSD when combat veterans present with one of several psychiatric syndromes mentioned above.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.