The relationship of alexithymia to emotional dysregulation within an alcohol dependent treatment sample

Abstract

Difficulties regulating emotions have implications for the development, maintenance, and recovery from alcohol problems. One construct thought to impede the regulation of emotion is alexithymia. Alexithymia is characterized by difficulties identifying, differentiating and expressing feelings, a limited imagination and fantasy life, and an externally-oriented thinking style (e.g., prefer talking about daily activities rather than feelings). Given that poor emotion regulation skills have been found to predict posttreatment levels of alcohol use, and that several defining characteristics of alexithymia bear similarity to deficits in emotion regulation skills, it is possible that alexithymia may predict poorer alcohol treatment outcomes. Thus, the present study first examined the relationship of alexithymia to several other emotion regulation measures and then investigated the impact of alexithymia on attrition and alcohol treatment outcomes in men and women (N = 77) enrolled in a 12-week cognitive-behavioral intervention for alcohol dependence. At baseline, higher scores on alexithymia were associated poorer emotion regulation skills, fewer percent days abstinent, greater alcohol dependence severity, and several high-risk drinking situations. Alexithymia was unrelated to attrition and to level of alcohol consumption at posttreatment. Overall, the construct of alexithymia is shown to be related to several theoretically-related constructs (e.g., emotion regulation, mindfulness) but demonstrated a limited relationship to drinking outcomes in those seeking treatment for alcohol dependence.

Profiles of impaired, spared, and recovered neuropsychologic processes in alcoholism

“…The alcoholics also had lower emotional intelligence scores, suggesting that these factors contributed to impaired interpersonal functioning. Further, higher levels of alexithymia, characterized by difficulties identifying, differentiating, and expressing feelings, have been reported in alcoholism (Maurage et al, 2011; Stasiewicz et al, 2012), and positive correlations between alexithymia measures and severity of alcohol use have been reported (Thorberg et al, 2011). …”

Mapping Mindfulness Facets Onto Dimensions of Anxiety and Depression

“…Describing has previously been associated with alexithymia (Baer et al, 2006; de Bruin et al, 2012; Stasieqicz et al, 2012), which is characterized by difficulties identifying and describing feelings and distinguishing between emotions and physical sensation (Bagby, Parker, & Taylor, 1994). In turn, alexithymia has been related to anhedonia and low positive affect (Deary, Scott, & Wilson, 2004; De Gucht, Fischler, & Heiser, 2004).…”

Serotonin receptor gene (5-HT1A) modulates alexithymic characteristics and attachment orientation

“…It is related to emotion dysregulation (Stasiewicz et al, 2012) and health-related quality of life (von Rimscha et al, 2013). It occurs in up to 50% of psychiatric patients, such as those suffering from depression or somatoform pain (Fukunishi et al, 1992;Burba et al, 2006), and in about 8% of the general population (Honkalampi et al, 2009;Karukivi et al, 2010;Deng et al, 2013).…”