A Comparative Study on Alexithymia in Depressive, Somatoform, Anxiety, and Psychotic Disorders among Koreans.
- Author:
Sung Hwa SON
1
;
Hyunyoung JO
;
Hyo Deog RIM
;
Ju Hee KIM
;
Hea Won KIM
;
Geum Ye BAE
;
Seung Jae LEE
Author Information
1. Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea. jayleemd@knu.ac.kr
- Publication Type:Comparative Study ; Original Article
- Keywords:
Alexithymia;
Depressive disorder;
Somatoform disorder;
Anxiety disorder;
Psychotic disorder
- MeSH:
Affective Symptoms;
Anxiety;
Anxiety Disorders;
Depressive Disorder;
Humans;
Mental Disorders;
Psychotic Disorders;
Somatoform Disorders
- From:Psychiatry Investigation
2012;9(4):325-331
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
OBJECTIVE: Little is known about the characteristic differences in alexithymic construct in various psychiatric disorders because of a paucity of direct comparisons between psychiatric disorders. Therefore, this study explored disorder-related differences in alexithymic characteristics among Korean patients diagnosed with four major psychiatric disorders (n=388). METHODS: Alexithymic tendencies, as measured by the Korean version of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20K), of patients classified into four groups according to major psychiatric diagnosis were compared. The groups consisted of patients with depressive disorders (DP; n=125), somatoform disorders (SM; n=78), anxiety disorders (AX; n=117), and psychotic disorders (PS; n=68). RESULTS: We found that substantial portions of patients in all groups were classified as having alexithymia and no statistical intergroup differences emerged (42.4%, 35.9%, 35.3%, and 33.3% for DP, SM, PS, and AX). However, patients with DP obtained higher scores in factor 2 (difficulties describing feelings) than those with SM or AX, after adjusting for demographic variables. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that alexithymia might be associated with a higher vulnerability to depressive disorders and factor 2 of TAS-20K could be a discriminating feature of depressive disorders.
