A Comparative Study on Alexithymia in Depressive, Somatoform, Anxiety, and Psychotic Disorders among Koreans
Psychiatry Investigation
;
: 325-331, 2012.
Article
in English
| WPRIM
| ID: wpr-58438
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.
Full text:
Available
Index:
WPRIM (Western Pacific)
Main subject:
Anxiety
/
Anxiety Disorders
/
Psychotic Disorders
/
Somatoform Disorders
/
Affective Symptoms
/
Depressive Disorder
/
Mental Disorders
Type of study:
Diagnostic study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Psychiatry Investigation
Year:
2012
Type:
Article
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