Alexithymia in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Abstract

Previous studies have indicated that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is associated with alexithymic traits. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the difference of alexithymia in OCD patients and healthy controls. This study was also designed to elucidate a specific link between certain OCD symptom dimensions and alexithymia. Forty-five patients with OCD and 45 healthy controls completed measures of the OCD symptom severity, alexithymia, anxiety, and depression. Patients with OCD had significantly higher scores of alexithymia than did the healthy controls. Multiple regression analysis revealed that age at onset and the level of anxiety were significantly associated with alexithymia. "Sexual/religious obsessions" was the only symptom dimension that showed a positive association with alexithymia in OCD patients. These findings suggest that OCD patients with a high level of anxiety and an early age of onset may have greater alexithymic tendency. We also found the first evidence for a specific link between sexual/religious obsessions and alexithymia in patients with OCD.

Dissociation between Emotional Remapping of Fear and Disgust in Alexithymia

“…As a final observation, alexithymia is a risk factor for the so called “pathologies of the disgust system”, i.e. pathologies in which the responses to disgusting stimuli are disproportionate to actual risk [ 93 ], such as the obsessive compulsive disorders (contamination obsessions) [ 94 ], eating disorder (disgust for the bodily self; [ 95 , 96 ]), some symptoms of schizophrenia [ 97 , 98 ] and hypochondriasis [ 99 , 100 ]. The current results suggest that HA individuals are abnormally focused on their visceral reactions, thus suggesting possible mechanisms increasing the risk to develop the pathologies of the disgust system.…”

Correlates of psychological inflexibility mediate the relation between alexithymic traits and positive emotions

“…The alexithymia construct has been refined more specifically into a difficulty in identifying feelings, difficulty in describing feelings, and a tendency for externally oriented thinking, or a concentration on external, often fantastic, events (e.g., Taylor, 2000;Taylor & Bagby, 2004). Alexithymia is not a discrete psychiatric diagnosis, and it has been observed in a vast array of psychiatric disorders and mental health problems, and in the general population (e.g., Fewen, Dozois, Neufeld, & Lanius, 2008;Kokkonen et al, 2001;Nowakowski, McFarlane, & Cassin, 2013;Roh, Kim, & Kim, 2011). Alexithymia has also been identified as a negative predictor of medical outcomes (e.g., Porcelli et al, 2003) and interferes with psychotherapy (e.g., Ogrodniczuk, Piper, & Joyce, 2011).…”

The Contribution of Alexithymia to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Symptoms Dimensions: An Investigation in a Large Community Sample in Italy

“…By a hand search of electronic databases (Medline, Embase, PsycInfo, Web of Knowledge, and Scopus), the authors identified five studies, which indicated that patients with OCD had significantly higher levels on all the three Alexithymia domains, although in one study differences between the two groups were not significant on Externally Oriented Thinking. Only one study [ 11 ] explored the relationship between OCD symptom dimensions and Alexithymia through a behavior-based measure of OCD. Regression analysis indicated that the sexual/religious dimension [ 11 ] was the only symptom predictor of the TAS-20 Total scores, whereas the other four symptom dimensions in this study (symmetry/Ordering, Hoarding, contamination/cleaning, and aggressive/Checking) did not show a significant relationship with the TAS total scores.…”

“…Only one study [ 11 ] explored the relationship between OCD symptom dimensions and Alexithymia through a behavior-based measure of OCD. Regression analysis indicated that the sexual/religious dimension [ 11 ] was the only symptom predictor of the TAS-20 Total scores, whereas the other four symptom dimensions in this study (symmetry/Ordering, Hoarding, contamination/cleaning, and aggressive/Checking) did not show a significant relationship with the TAS total scores.…”