The use of alexithymia scales in patients with Noonan Syndrome

Abstract

Although there is scarce literature on the cognitive and social functioning of patients with Noonan syndrome (NS), some evidence exists for a characteristic pattern of deficits in emotion identification and emotion verbalisation, which seems to be not attributable to intelligence. It has been suggested that this pattern could be best captured with the concept of alexithymia.The present study examines convergent and discriminant validity of two well-known alexithymia measures, i.e., the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ) in a sample of 28 patients with Noonan Syndrome (NS). To enable interpretative refinement, results were related to intelligence and to measures of empathy and motivational drive.It was hypothesised that TAS-20 and BVAQ would show strong positive intercorrelations, independent of intelligence levels. Inverse correlations between alexithymia and both motivational drive and empathy were expected.In line with expectations, TAS-20 and BVAQ showed positive intercorrelations, although convergence typically was found to be stronger for the cognitive aspects of alexithymia than for the affective aspects. As expected, empathy correlated negatively with alexithymia. However, intelligence nor motivational drive seemed to be related to alexithymia.The present results lend support to the validity of alexithymia assessment in NS-patients. Interestingly, while empathy and motivational drive can be seen as executive aspects, results also suggest the adoption of a neuropsychological perspective when studying the alexithymia concept.