"Alexithymia" from_date:2012

Alexithymia or general psychological distress? Discriminant validity of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire. Alexithymia is an important transdiagnostic risk factor for emotion-based psychopathologies. However, it remains unclear whether alexithymia questionnaires actually measure alexithymia, or whether they measure emotional distress. Our aim here was to address this discriminant validity concern via exploratory factor analysis (EFA) of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire (PAQ). United States general community adults (N = 508) completed the TAS-20, PAQ, and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21). EFA was used to examine the latent dimensions underlying these measures' scores. Our EFA

Increased galanin-galanin receptor 1 signaling, inflammation, and insulin resistance are associated with affective symptoms and chronic fatigue syndrome due to long COVID. Patients with Long COVID (LC) often experience neuropsychiatric symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), collectively referred to as the physio-affective phenome of LC. Activated immune most important biomarkers. The inclusion of the PBT/SpO2 index increased the prediction (55.3%-67.1%). The PBT/SpO2 index predicted the increases in GAL-GALR1 signaling. These results indicate that the CFS and affective symptoms that are linked to LC are the consequence of metabolic aberrations, activated immune-inflammatory pathways, and the severity of inflammation during the acute phase of SARS

The effect of a group cognitive behavioral therapy on the quality of life and emotional disturbance of women with breast cancer. While the rate of survival has increased in the past decade, the diagnosis of breast cancer is an extremely stressful experience for patients and it is associated with the manifestation of several psychological problems. To examine the effect of a group cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on the quality of life and emotional disturbance of women with breast cancer. The study was a randomized controlled clinical trial. Samples were 48 women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer and had undergone mastectomy and chemotherapy. Study variables were measured before and after the intervention and 1 month after the end of the intervention as a follow-up. Controls

Differential associations of somatic and cognitive-affective symptoms of depression with inflammation and insulin resistance: cross-sectional and longitudinal results from the Emotional Distress Sub-Study of the GRADE study. Insulin resistance and inflammation are components of a biological framework that is hypothesised to be shared by type 2 diabetes and depression. However, depressive symptoms include a large heterogeneity of somatic and cognitive-affective symptoms, and this may obscure the associations within this biological framework. Cross-sectional and longitudinal data were used to disentangle the contributions of insulin resistance and inflammation to somatic and cognitive-affective symptoms of depression. This secondary analysis used data from the Emotional Distress Sub-Study

Understanding empathy deficits and emotion dysregulation in psychopathy: The mediating role of alexithymia. Psychopathy is a severe personality disorder marked by a wide range of emotional deficits, including a lack of empathy, emotion dysregulation, and alexithymia. Previous research has largely examined these emotional impairments in isolation, ignoring their influence on each other. Thus, we examined the concurrent interrelationship between emotional impairments in psychopathy, with a particular focus on the mediating role of alexithymia. Using path analyses with cross-sectional data from a community sample (N = 315) and a forensic sample (N = 50), our results yielded a statistically significant mediating effect of alexithymia on the relationship between psychopathy and empathy (community

Impact of alexithymia, speech problems and parental emotion recognition on internalizing and externalizing problems in preschoolers. Alexithymia, characterized by difficulty identifying and describing emotions and an externally oriented thinking style, is a personality trait linked to various mental health issues. Despite its recognized importance, research on alexithymia in early childhood is sparse. This study addresses this gap by investigating alexithymia in preschool-aged children and its correlation with psychopathology, along with parental alexithymia. Data were analyzed from 174 parents of preschoolers aged 3 to 6, including 27 children in an interdisciplinary intervention program, all of whom attended regular preschools. Parents filled out online questionnaires assessing

Effectiveness of Counseling for Infertile Couples on Women's Emotional Disturbance: A Randomized Clinical Trial.  The psychosocial burden of infertility among couples can be one of the most important reasons for women's emotional disturbance. The goal of the present study was to investigate the effect of counseling on different emotional aspects of infertile women.  The present randomized

The Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire-Short Form (PAQ-S): A 6-item measure of alexithymia. Alexithymia is a trait characterized by difficulties identifying feelings, difficulties describing feelings, and externally orientated thinking. It is widely regarded as an important transdiagnostic risk factor for a range of psychopathologies, including depressive and anxiety disorders. Whilst several well -validated psychometric measures of alexithymia exist, these are relatively lengthy, thus limiting their utility in time-pressured settings. In this paper, we address this gap by introducing and validating a brief 6-item version of the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire, called the Perth Alexithymia Questionnaire-Short Form (PAQ-S). Across two studies with adult samples (Study 1 N = 508 United States

Characterising alexithymia in individuals with functional motor disorders: a cross-sectional analysis of the Italian Registry of Functional Motor Disorders. Alexithymia, a personality trait characterised by difficulty in identifying and expressing emotions, may contribute to the onset and clinical presentation of functional motor disorders (FMDs), although this association remains underexplored . From the Italian Registry of FMDs, we selected individuals recruited between November 2011 and January 2023, diagnosed with FMD according to Gupta and Lang criteria and assessed for various neurological and psychological features with validated rating scales. The main statistical analysis included regression models using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale 20 items as an explanatory variable for a set

Unravelling the link between alexithymia and psychological distress in nurses: a multi-hospital cross-sectional study exploring the mediating roles of workplace conflict and emotional exhaustion. Nurses are particularly susceptible to the adverse psychological effects of alexithymia, a personality trait characterized by difficulties in identifying and describing emotions. However, the mechanisms linking alexithymia to psychological distress among nurses remain unclear. The present study aimed to unravel the link between alexithymia and psychological distress in nurses, and to explore the potential mediating roles of workplace conflict and emotional exhaustion. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 4088 nurses from 43 public hospitals in China. The participants completed a web-based

Affective abstraction predicts variation in alexithymia, depression, and autism spectrum quotient. Affective abstraction refers to how people conceptualize affective states in terms of category-level representations that generalize across specific situations (e.g., "fear" as evoked by heights, predators, and haunted houses). Here, we develop a novel task for assessing affective abstraction and test its relations with trait alexithymia, depression, and autism spectrum quotient. In a preregistered online study, participants completed a set of tasks in which they matched a cue image with one of two probe images based on similarity of affective experience. In a discrete emotion version of the task, the cue and target probe matched on a discrete emotion category while controlling for valence

The relationship between childhood trauma and internet addiction in adolescents with depression: the mediating role of insomnia and alexithymia. The correlation between depressive symptoms and internet addiction in adolescents is strengthened, and childhood trauma is an important predictor of internet addiction. However, the mechanism of childhood trauma on internet addiction in adolescents with depression remains unclear. This study investigates the current status and factors influencing internet addiction in adolescents with depression and further examines whether insomnia and alexithymia mediate childhood trauma and internet addiction in adolescents with depression. This study investigated 300 adolescent patients in 7 hospitals in Anhui province. General demographic characteristics such as age

Understanding the influence of early life challenges on alexithymia: A comparative study of offenders and a community sample. Individuals who experience adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are likely to display alexithymia and are more prone to engage in criminal behaviors. This study aims to assess the relationship between ACEs and alexithymia, to compare a sample of offenders with a community sample in ACEs and alexithymia, and to analyze the predictors of alexithymia. The sample comprised 540 participants of both sexes, with 405 individuals from the community and 135 incarcerated individuals. The participants responded to the sociodemographic questionnaire, the Adverse Childhood Experiences Questionnaire (ACEs), and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Both samples revealed positive

Do we need to accurately perceive our heartbeats? Cardioceptive accuracy and sensibility are independent from indicators of negative affectivity, body awareness, body image dissatisfaction, and alexithymia. Assessment of the acuity of heartbeat perception, dubbed cardioceptive accuracy, as well as its association with various psychological characteristics are hot topics of interoception research . In this study, we aimed (1) to replicate previously reported findings on the association between the mental tracking task and a novel motor tracking task that eliminates disturbing tactile sensations; and (2) to explore associations between performance in the latter task and indicators of negative affectivity (anxiety, depression, anxiety sensitivity, somatic symptom distress), alexithymia, body focus

Evidence of abnormal scalar timing property in alexithymia. Evidence suggests that incidental modulation of affective states affects the ability to keep track of time. Alexithymia represents an ideal condition to further address the emotion-time processing link, as it refers to a trait characterized by a deficit of affective processing. 31 healthy participants completed an online version of the TAS-20 scale, which measures alexithymia, and a time reproduction task of visual stimuli related to positive (i.e., happiness) and negative (i.e., anger) facial expressions. Results documented a positive correlation between TAS-20 score and the variability in reproducing sub-second durations of the anger expression stimuli We also found an overestimation of sub-second durations of non-affective

Association between alexithymia, emotional intelligence, smoking addiction, and alcohol use disorder among a sample of Lebanese adults. Alexithymia can be associated with worse addictive traits, while emotional intelligence is associated with better addictive outcomes. In Lebanon, the prevalence of cigarette and waterpipe smoking is on the rise, although people are aware of the associated harms . Also, around 11% of Lebanese adults have experienced alcohol use disorder (AUD). This study aimed to assess the association between alexithymia, emotional intelligence, smoking (cigarette and waterpipe), and AUD among a sample of Lebanese adults. A web-based cross-sectional study carried out between February and April 2020, during the lockdown period, enrolled 408 community-dwelling adults

Alexithymia modulates the attitudes towards odors but not the olfactory abilities or the affective reactions to odors. Although emotion and olfaction are closely linked, only a few studies have investigated olfactory processing in alexithymia, a condition characterized by altered emotional processing. These results do not allow comprehensive conclusions on whether individuals with alexithymia , medium and high alexithymia groups, and Linear Mixed Models (LMMs) were applied to investigate the modulation of the affective and cognitive components of alexithymia. We observed that individuals with a high level of alexithymia presented the same olfactory abilities, and did not show differences in their rating of odors compared to individuals with low alexithymia levels, while they reported lower

Trait and situation-specific intolerance of uncertainty predict affective symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic, a high-uncertainty situation, presents an ideal opportunity to examine how trait intolerance of uncertainty (IU) and situation-specific IU relate to each other and to mental health outcomes. The current longitudinal study examined the unique associations more specific and individualized interventions. Idiographic treatments which target situation-specific IU may be more efficacious in reducing affective symptoms and related stress during the COVID-19 pandemic or other similar events.

Effects of open-label transdermal nicotine antidepressant augmentation on affective symptoms and executive function in late-life depression. Late-life depression (LLD) is characterized by a poor response to antidepressant medications and diminished cognitive performance, particularly in executive functioning. There is currently no accepted pharmacotherapy for LLD that effectively treats both depression severity, secondary affective symptoms, and cognitive performance. Nicotine metabolite concentrations were obtained from blood samples. Depression severity significantly decreased over the trial, with a 76 % response rate and 59 % remission rate. Change in depression severity was positively associated with nicotine exposure. Participants also exhibited improvement in self-reported affective

Maternal affective symptoms and sleep quality have sex-specific associations with placental topography. The impacts of prenatal maternal affective symptoms on the placental structure are not well-established. Employing Geographic Information System (GIS) spatial autocorrelation, Moran's I, can help characterize placental thickness uniformity/variability and evaluate the impacts of maternal distress on placental topography. This study (N = 126) utilized cohort data on prenatal maternal affective symptoms and placental 2D and 3D morphology. Prenatal maternal depression, stress, anxiety and sleep quality were scored for each trimester using the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS), Stressful Life Event Scale (SLE), Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ), and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality