“…Aside from psychological distress, a broad association between alexithymia and various chronic health problems has been suggested (Di Tella & Castelli, 2013;Kilic, Sar, Taycan et al, 2014;Sayar, Gulec & Topbas, 2004;Tesio, Di Tella, Ghiggia et al, 2018), but few studies have investigate the role of alexithymia in pain perception as well as depression in patients with RA (Donisan et al, 2017;Karahan, Kucuk, Balkarli et al, 2016;Kojima, Kojima, Suzuki et al, 2014). The prevalence of alexithymia among individuals with RA is around 22-31% (Karahan et al, 2016;Kojima et al, 2014), but is not clear if this trait can be considered as a strong predictor of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) (Donisan et al, 2017;Kojima et al, 2014).…”