Alexithymic Depression: Evidence for a Depression Subtype?

Vanheule, Stijn; Desmet, Mattias; Verhaeghe, Paul; Bogaerts, Stefan

doi:10.1159/000104710

Cited by 43 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…As expected, depression and alexithymia were significantly related (Vanheule et al, 2007b). The correlations between alexithymia and PD features were present for cluster A, but not for cluster B or C. This finding is inconsistent with former studies, but we hasten to say it may be due to the limited size of the clinical sample.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 92%

“…A subsample of patients with depression, for instance, has been consistently found who struggle to contact emotional experience and communicating to others (Vanheule, Desmet, Verhaeghe, & Bogaerts, 2007b). Patients with alexithymia have been found to respond poorly to psychological treatments (Ogrodniczuk, Piper, & Joyce, 2004;Ogrodniczuk, Piper, & Joyce, in press).…”

Section: Alexithymiamentioning

confidence: 99%

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Alexithymia and Irony Comprehension and their Relations with Depression, Anxiety, General Symptomatology and Personality Disorders: A Comparison Between Clinical and Non-Clinical Participants

Dimaggio¹,

Paviglianiti²,

Carcione

et al. 2011

PSYCHOL BELG

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Poor awareness of one's own emotions and theory of mind appears to be a feature of many adult psychiatric conditions. In this study, we explored whether alexithymia and poor understanding of irony, both elements of the metacognitive system, were impaired in a clinical sample (n = 20) when compared to a non-clinical group (n = 35). We expected that both elements were impaired in the clinical group and explored whether they were correlated with personality disorder traits, global symptomatology, depression and anxiety. Finally, we sought to investigate whether alexithymia and difficulties in irony comprehension were related to each other. Results partially supported our hypotheses. Both emotional awareness and irony comprehension were impaired in the clinical vs. non-clinical sample. Alexithymia was related to personality disorder

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 92%

Section: Alexithymiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Alexithymia and Irony Comprehension and their Relations with Depression, Anxiety, General Symptomatology and Personality Disorders: A Comparison Between Clinical and Non-Clinical Participants

Dimaggio¹,

Paviglianiti²,

Carcione

et al. 2011

PSYCHOL BELG

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“…By contrast, conscientiousness was related to the adoption of healthy attitudes measured by the health habits scale [53]. Alexithymia, the inability to use appropriate words to describe emotions with a resulting utilitarian way of thinking [82,83,84,85,86,87], also showed a positive relationship with the IAS scores [46, 88]. These results were found both in normal subjects and in clinical samples recruited in medical or psychiatric settings.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Illness Attitude Scales

Sirri

Grandi²,

Fava³

2008

Psychother Psychosom

116

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Background: The Illness Attitude Scales (IAS) were developed by Robert Kellner as a clinimetric index for measuring hypochondriacal fears and beliefs (worry about illness, concerns about pain, health habits, hypochondriacal beliefs, thanatophobia, disease phobia, bodily preoccupations, treatment experience and effects of symptoms). The IAS have been extensively used in the past two decades, but there has been no comprehensive review of their properties and applications. Methods: A review of the literature using both computerized (Medline, PsycINFO) and manual searches was performed. Results: The IAS were found to successfully discriminate between hypochondriacal patients and control subjects, and between patients with various manifestations of illness behaviour. They showed a high test-retest reliability in normal subjects, and changed in the expected direction after treatment of hypochondriasis. The IAS were also positively related to other hypochondriasis-related measures, and yielded important information in a variety of medical and surgical settings. Their content has paved the way for the development of some of the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research. Conclusions: The clinimetric properties and high sensitivity of the IAS make them the gold standard for the self-rated assessment of hypochondriacal fears and beliefs.

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“…Numerous studies have shown that alexithymia is associated with a variety of medical and psychiatric disorders including substance use disorders (e.g., Haviland, Hendryx, Shaw, & Henry, 1994), eating disorders (e.g., Taylor, Parker, Bagby, & Bourke, 1996), posttraumatic stress disorder (e.g., Frewen, Lanius, Dozois, Neufeld, Pain, Hopper et al, 2008), somatisation disorders (e.g., De Gucht & Heiser, 2003), functional gastrointestinal disorders (Porcelli, Taylor, Bagby, & De Carne, 1999), and a subtype of depression characterised by more somatic-affective symptoms (Vanheule, Desmet, Verhaeghe, & Bogaerts, 2007) (for an overview see Taylor et al, 1997;Taylor, 2004). In most studies alexithymia was measured with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20; .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There is a considerable amount of alexithymia research in Dutch-speaking countries in medical and psychiatric patient populations using self-report alexithymia scales (e.g., Kooiman, van Rees Vellinga, Spinhoven, Draijer, Trijsburg, & Rooijmans, 2004;Vanheule et al, 2007;Wingbermühle, Egger, Verhoeven, van der Burgt, & Kessels, 2012). Moreover, a Dutch study in a clinical population is the first -to our knowledge -that examined the convergence between more than two alexithymia measures simultaneously (Meganck, Inslegers, Vanheule, & Desmet, 2011).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Dutch Language Version of the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia: Reliability, Factor Structure and Concurrent Validity

et al. 2013

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The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Dutch version of the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA) in a clinical sample. The TSIA and the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) were administered to 85 psychiatric inpatients and to 76 medical outpatients with the symptom of tinnitus. Both internal and inter-rater reliability were acceptable. Confirmatory factor analyses supported the hierarchical, 4-factor structure with 4 lower-order factors nested within 2 higher-order latent factors, previously obtained with English, German, and Italian versions. Concurrent validity was supported by significant correlations between the TSIA and the TAS-20 total scores although there were some differences between the psychiatric subsample and the medical subsample. While further studies are needed to assess the convergent and discriminant validity of the TSIA, the results support its use as a measure of alexithymia.

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Alexithymic Depression: Evidence for a Depression Subtype?

Cited by 43 publications

References 17 publications

Alexithymia and Irony Comprehension and their Relations with Depression, Anxiety, General Symptomatology and Personality Disorders: A Comparison Between Clinical and Non-Clinical Participants

Alexithymia and Irony Comprehension and their Relations with Depression, Anxiety, General Symptomatology and Personality Disorders: A Comparison Between Clinical and Non-Clinical Participants

The Illness Attitude Scales

The Dutch Language Version of the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia: Reliability, Factor Structure and Concurrent Validity

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