Prevalence of Alexithymia among Undergraduates at BUITEMS

Abstract

Alexithymia is a disorder or an inability of a person to express his or her feelings and emotions. It is the decreased capacity to comprehend feelings or sentiments in the self as well as of others. The current epidemiological investigations demonstrate that upwards of 10% of the overall public might be portrayed by stages of alexithymia that are sufficiently high to succeed as uncontrolled. Alexithymia is related to a variety of somatic and mental health problems including depression and anxiety, somatic complaints, hypertension, panic disorder, eating disorders, inflammatory bowel disease etc. Our results suggested that occurrence of alexithymia is more prevalent among males than females. Along these lines it is basic to report this issue among undergraduates since it may have aggravating impacts later on.

Prevalence and associated factors of alexithymia among medical students: A cross-sectional study from Saudi Arabia

“…Our finding is consistent with some previous studies, in which a higher prevalence in females was claimed. 3 , 8 , 9 Our results were also in conflict with other studies, in which it was claimed a higher male prevalence, 2 , 7 , 13 and those denying a significant difference. 4 , 10 , 11 …”

“…These figures are more than the (10%) prevalence found in the general population claimed by other previous studies. 2 - 6 …”

“… 11 , 13 Face-to-face relationships and social, linguistic, and neuroscience exploration have been suggested in previous studies as possible treatments by which alexithymia might be improved. 2 , 16 Despite the significance of alexithymia, there are few studies regarding its prevalence and associated factors in Saudi Arabia. Therefore, we examined the prevalence of alexithymia among medical students and its related factors in this study.…”

Alexithymia and its Association with Smartphone Addiction and Physical Activity in University Students of Islamabad

“…In our study the prevalence of alexithymia among university students for the total sample was 29.7% and these results were higher than most of the previous studies i.e. 14% alexithymia in students of Greek university, 21.2% in university students of Istanbul, 30.2% in university students of kingdom Saudi Arabia, 33% among undergraduates of Baluchistan University (4,(15)(16)(17) . Contrary to past studies alexithymia score was higher in females than males in this study and the results were consistent with some previous studies (3,18,19) .…”

“…Alexithymia was first introduced by a psychotherapist ''Peter E. Sifneos'' in 1973, characterized as a personality trait comprised of three components including: Difficulty Identifying Feelings, Difficulty Describing Feeling and Externally Oriented Thinking style, along with a decreased cognitive ability to understand and verbalize emotions of oneself and of others (1) . Studies suggest alexithymia to be 17-18% in West, 22 % in Middle East and 33% in Pakistan (1)(2)(3)(4) . In the context of accurate etiology of alexithymia a scientific gap exists in literature but in the past literature has linked it with autism, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, childhood sexual abuse, traumatic brain injury, type 2 diabetes as well as with certain addictive behaviors including smartphone addiction (5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10).…”