Alexithymia in somatizing patients

The associations between alexithymia and somatization, perceived symptoms and subjective health, were investigated in a population sample of 2,297 middle-aged Finnish men. A modified translated version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) was used to assess alexithymia. A graded and statistically significant relationship was observed between the TAS score for alexithymia and self-reported recent symptoms. The alexithymia score, adjusted for age, smoking and socioeconomic status, was also positively associated with the MMPI hypochondriasis index and inversely with perceived level of health. One of the factors of the TAS appeared to have a weak but significant correlation with a variety of diagnosed disorders that previously have been considered psychosomatic.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alexithymia and Perceived Symptoms: Criterion Validity of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale

Kauhanen

Julkunen

Salonen

1991

“…independently, by Marty et al [2] in France. Since then, alexithymia has also been found in healthy subjects [3,4] and in those with other serious somatic pathologies [4], somatoform disorders [5][6][7], posttraumatic stress disorders [8], psychogenic pain problems [9][10][11] and substance use disorders [12,13].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Alexithymia and Breast Cancer

Todarello¹,

Pesa²,

Zaka³

et al. 1989

The Schalling Sifneos Personality Scale (SSPS) and the Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire (MHQ) have been used in 381 women just before mammography at the Breast Center of the Radiology Institute, University of Bari (Italy). Of the 200 women who accepted to complete the questionnaires 13 were found positive for cancer. Student’s t test comparison of the mean SSPS and MHQ scores of the positive for cancer with the negative showed that women with breast cancer have more pronounced alexithymic but not neurotic traits. Our findings suggest that patients with cancer may have something in common with those suffering from so-called psychosomatic pathologies who have a constrained imagination and fantasy and difficulty in verbalizing their emotions. Thus, this study indicates a relationship between alexithymia and cancer.

“…There is evidence that alexithymia is prevalent in psychosomatic patients, so that the 2 phenomena are positively correlated [6,7,15,20,[29][30][31]. Since we have shown a pos itive relationship between cerebral commis surotomy and alexithymia [32][33][34], and here show a similar relationship between commis surotomy and psychosomatic personality structure, a link is established between these 2 biopsychosocial phenomena.…”

Section: Alexithymia and Psychosomatic Personality Structurementioning

confidence: 85%

Alexithymia and the Split Brain

Wd¹,

Kd²,

Je³

et al. 1985

A structural explanation of psychosomatic personality structure is proposed, that of a functional or physical deconnection of the two cerebral hemispheres. If the affective and symbolic energies of the right hemisphere cannot be externalized through verbal expressions of the left hemisphere (alexithymia), then they are apt to be directed inward, thereby contributing to psychosomatic personality structure. In an experiment, 8 cerebral commissurotomy patients and 8 precision-matched normal control subjects were shown a 3-minute videotaped film symbolically depicting the deaths of a baby and a boy. Gottschalk-Gleser content analysis of the subjects’ verbal responses to the film was carried out for anxiety and hostility scales. A complex of shame and total anxiety in combination with hostility directed both inward and outward, was interpreted as an indicator of ‘psychosomatic personality structure’. Cerebral commissurotomy patients showed a significantly higher level of psychosomatic personality structure than did normal controls.