The Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire Cutoff Scores: A Study in Eating-Disordered and Control Subjects

Abstract

Background: The evaluation of alexithymic deficits has become increasingly desirable in health and psychopathology research. The purpose of this study was to calculate alexithymia cutoff scores for a recently developed self-report alexithymia questionnaire: the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire Form B (BVAQ-B). Sampling: Three hundred subjects (47 eating-disordered patients and 253 healthy individuals) completed the BVAQ-B and the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Methods: The TAS-20 was used as a gold standard for this research, with its previously established cutoff scores serving as diagnostic criteria for determining the presence or absence of alexithymia. The BVAQ-B cutoff score selection was based on the examination of psychometric data (i.e., the sensitivity and specificity of the BVAQ-B scores and receiver operating characteristic curve analyses) and of clinical data (i.e., BVAQ-B mean score of the control subjects, who were mostly nonalexithymic, and BVAQ-B mean score of a group of patients with eating disorders, the majority of whom were alexithymic). Results: This research found that the most appropriate BVAQ-B cutoff scores for determining the absence and presence of alexithymia were 43 and 53, respectively. Conclusion: In light of these findings, we believe that the BVAQ-B may also lend itself to a categorical evaluation of alexithymia, with these cutoff scores determining its absence or presence.

Emotion generation and regulation in anorexia nervosa: A systematic review and meta-analysis of self-report data

“…Prevalence of such socio-emotional avoidance may even be greater for situations anticipated to induce positive over negative emotions in people with EDs (Lampard et al, 2011;Raykos et al, 2009). This fits with reports that people with EDs and AN are less motivated or interested in seeking out social pleasure than HCs (social anhedonia; Deborde et al, 2007;Tchanturia et al, 2012;Harrison, Mountford, & Tchanturia, 2014), although they also report more loneliness (Harney, Fitzsimmons-Craft, Maldonado, & Bardone-Cone, 2014).…”

“…By including our own meta-analysis on alexithymia we sought to reduce bias when comparing effect sizes across the review, as studies in all sections were subject to the same inclusion criteria. Taylor et al, 1988) to examine alexithymia in people with AN (Beales & Dolton, 2000;Berthoz, Perdereau, Godart, Corcos, & Haviland, 2007;Corcos et al, 2000;Deborde et al, 2007;De Panfilis, Rabbaglio, Rossi, Zita, & Maggini, 2003;Franzoni et al, 2013;Lawson et al, 2008;Marchesi, Ossola, Tonna, & De Panfilis, 2014;Torres et al, 2015; Appendix A for metaanalysis references). One study used the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia questionnaire (Vorst & Bermond, 2001) which the authors report has a total score considered equivalent to that of the TAS (Courty et al, 2013).…”

The cognitive and affective alexithymia dimensions in the regulation of sympathetic responses

“…The BVAQ has five separate subscales, (8 items per subscale, four indicative and four contra-indicative) for all alexithymia features as discussed by others (Nemiah and Sifneos, 1970;Sifneos et al, 1977;Taylor et al, 1985;Nemiah, 1996;Sifneos, 1991Sifneos, , 2000Hendryx et al, 1991); reduced capacities concerning: (1) ]. The original Dutch BVAQ and its translations all have acceptable to very-good psychometric properties, and its usefulness has been demonstrated in several different settings (Nähring and van der Staak, 1995;Houtveen et al, 1991;Zech et al, 1999;Berthoz et al, 2000: Van Dijk et al, 2002Elzinga et al, 2002;Vorst and Bermond, 2001;Morera et al, 2005;Bermond et al, 2007;Debordea et al, 2008). For reasons of comparisons with the TAS-20, it should be noted that the BVAQ emotion-cognitive subscales (Identifying, Analyzing, and Verbalizing) cover the same domain as the TAS-20, because the sum-totals of these BVAQ subscales correlate highly (r = 0.80) with the TAS-20 sum-totals (Vorst and Bermond, 2001).…”

Deranged endocannabinoid responses to hedonic eating in underweight and recently weight-restored patients with anorexia nervosa

“…Anhedonia, which is the reduced ability to experience reward, is a key symptom in the clinical presentation of anorexia nervosa (AN) 4 (1). Accordingly, in AN patients, functional brainimaging studies that specifically assessed the processing of foodrelated stimuli, such as watching images of highly rewarding foods, showed, although not consistently, the hypoactivation of brain areas of the mesolimbic reward system (2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7).…”