The relationship between childhood psychological abuse and depression in college students: internet addiction as mediator, different dimensions of alexithymia as moderator
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Abstract:
Childhood psychological abuse (CPA) is highly associated with depression among college students. However, the underlying mechanisms between these variables need further exploration. This study aims to investigate internet addiction as a mediating factor and alexithymia and its different dimensions as moderating factors, to further complement the psychological mechanisms between CPA and depression among college students.Keywords:
Moderation
Biostatistics
Mediator
Depression
Alexithymia has been described as difficulty in expressing as well as experiencing feelings. It has been studied in relation with medical as well as psychological conditions and has been seen to impact treatment outcomes. The current review focuses on the relationship of alexithymia with depression and the role of culture in this relationship. The keywords for literature included terms such as depression, alexithymia, depression and alexithymia, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, assessing alexithymia and depression, and alexithymia as a trait. The main findings of the review were that alexithymia and depression are highly correlated, and severity of depression and gender are independently associated with alexithymia and may interfere with treatment outcomes.
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Introduction Alexithymia is considered as a deficit in emotion processing. It includes difficulty to identify and describe feelings as well as discriminate between feelings and physical sensations. Alexithymia may be a risk factor for substance use (SUD). Objectives The objective of this work is to identify the prevalence and correlates of alexithymia among patients with SUD. Methods This study concerns 40 subjects who were hospitalized in a rehabilitation center in Sfax. The subjects completed a form investigating sociodemographic and drug use characteristics. Alexithymia was assessed using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale TAS-20 a. The TAS-20 have three factors: difficulty in identifying feelings (F1), difficulty in describing feelings (F2), and externally oriented thinking (F3). Results The mean age of 30.86 ± 8.07 years. The mean score of alexithymia was 65.39 ± 9.65 (42→83). The scores of its dimensions were 25.3 ± 6.10 for F1, 17.16 ± 3.3 for F2 and 23.16 ± 3.18 for F3. The prevalence of alexithymia was 62.8% among addicts. High alexithymic patients did not differ from low or moderate alexithymic patients in terms of, employment, education or the type of substance. TAS-20 was correlated to socio-economic status ( P = 0.002). No correlation was observed between age and alexithymia (total TAS-20) when measured as a continuous variable ( P = 0.802). High alexithymic patients exhibited a higher preference for poly-substance use compared with no alexithymic patients ( P = 0.05). Conclusion Findings suggest that alexithymia is frequent in SUD patients. It should be noted in clinical practice that many patients with SUD may have a reduced capacity to identify and describe feelings during detoxification. Disclosure of interest The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.
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Alexithymia is often considered as a risk factor of psychosomatic disorders. Some experts consider alexithymia as one of the important features of dermatological patients. This work aims to evaluate alexithymia in patients who were admitted at the dermatology clinic. 129 patients of the dermatology clinic, as well as 120 people without dermatological symptoms, participated in this study. The study showed significantly higher rates of alexithymia (p < 0.001) in the dermatology clinic group compared to healthy subjects. Not working patients with lower educational level demonstrated significantly higher level of alexithymia. In addition, those with clinically expressed somatic diseases, showed significantly higher rates of alexithymia compared with those who did not have concomitant dermatoses (p < 0.001). Thus, alexithymia can be considered as one of the components of the integral characteristic of the personality of patients with dermatoses.
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Alexithymia, a deficit characterized by difficulties identifying, differentiating, and articulating emotions, is associated with significant physical and mental health impairment. It is generally accepted that alexithymia has a negative impact on a variety of physical and mental health treatments. Less clear is the extent to which alexithymia itself can be modified. In this article we review studies that have examined the effects of psychological interventions on alexithymia. Taken together, findings from investigations included in this review suggest that alexithymia is partly modifiable with therapeutic interventions. Studies that directly targeted alexithymic symptoms tended to report significant reductions in alexithymia scores following treatment, whereas studies that measured changes in alexithymia but did not employ any psychological interventions specifically intended to treat alexithymia had more inconsistent results. We close by considering the practical implications of the findings, and by offering suggestions for future research.
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Background The growth of psychosomatic disorders is the most important medical and social problem of modern healthcare. Particular attention of researchers is attracted by the alexithymic radical in the structure of the patient’s premorbid personality, as one of the possible psychological risk factors for the development of psychosomatic disorders. Alexithymia is a psychological phenomenon that described as difficulty in definition one’s own feelings, difficulty in distinguishing between feelings and bodily sensations, a decrease in the ability to symbolize, and a focus on external events rather than internal experiences. Objectives The aim of this work was to study the level of alexithymia in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Methods There were 87 patients under observation, the majority were women (82.8%), of 35.33 ± 1.77 years old in average. The average duration of the disease was 7.09 ± 0.89 years. The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) [1] was used to measure alexithymia. Results It should be noted that in healthy people [1] the level of alexithymia is 59.3 ± 1.3 points. The mean value of alexithymia in SLE patients was 74.05 ± 2.62 points. The high and medium rates of alexithymia were established in 54 cases from 78 patients, and there were low levels in 24 cases indicating the absence of alexithymia. It was not possible to identify the dependence of alexithymia on gender and age. There was also no significant dependence of the level of alexithymia on the duration of the disease, the course and the activity of the pathological process. However, a significant direct correlation between the severity of alexithymia and depression and anxiety was revealed (see Table 1). Table 1. Dependence of the level of alexithymia on some characteristics of SLE patients Disease course Disease activity Age of patients Disease duration Asthenia Depression Anxiety Hypochondria TAS 0.24 0.21 -0.09 0.44 0.33 0.51* 0.46* 0.35 * - p < 0.05 Our data indicate that patients with SLE have a high level of alexithymia. Indeed, patients suffering from this disease experience difficulties in understanding and verbalizing feelings, persistently strive to draw the doctor’s attention to their physical sensations, without attaching importance to or denying trouble in the emotional sphere. Conclusion The results of the study indicate a certain role of the phenomenon of alexithymia in the pathogenesis of psychosomatic disorders in SLE, and the level of alexithymia does not depend on gender, age, and the main clinical characteristics of the disease, but correlates with general neuroticism. It is possible that the high level of alexithymia in SLE patients leads to an increase in depression and anxiety, and generates psychological distress. Thus, the study of alexithymia, among other risk factors of a biological and psychosocial nature, is important for a better understanding of the role of psychological mechanisms in the pathogenesis of psychosomatic diseases, the organization of preventive measures aimed at correcting alexithymic features, carried out in individual and group forms of psychotherapy. References [1]Taylor GJ, Ryan DP, Bagby RM. Toward the development of a new self-report alexithymia scale. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. 1985; 44:191-199. [2]Eres’ko DB, Isurina GL, Kaydanovskaya YeV, et al. Aleksitimiya i metody yeye opredeleniya pri pogranichnykh psikhosomaticheskikh rasstroystvakh. Posobiye dlya psikhologov i vrachey. St. Petersburg: Sankt-Peterburgskiy nauchno-issledovatel’skiy psikhonevrologicheskiy institut im VM Bekhtereva, 2005: 25 P. Eresko D.B., Isurina G.L., Kaidanovskaya E.V., et al. Alexithymia and methods for its determination in borderline psychosomatic disorders. Handbook for psychologists and doctors. - SPb: St. Petersburg Research Institute of Psychoneurology. V.M. Bekhtereva, 2005. - 25 P. Disclosure of Interests None declared
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In modern science, alexithymia is defined as the specific cognitive status of a person who has marked difficulties in understanding and exteriorizing one’s feelings, emotions, experiences, and impressions, as well as in separating them from bodily sensations and in perceiving the feelings and emotions of other people. Alexithymic disorders have been actively studied by doctors of various profiles, psychologists, neurophysiologists, and also – over the past decade – by linguists. This article discusses the features of alexithymia in its connection with the problems of clinical practice, the manifestations of alexithymia in various fields, and the specifics of its interdisciplinary study. The relationship of alexithymia with the risk and more severe course of various somatic diseases is analyzed. Particular attention is paid to the difficulties of diagnostic procedures in the presence of a high level of alexithymia in patients. Various classifications of alexithymia are considered. A review of modern neurostudies on alexithymia seeking to further explore it and identify optimal therapeutic strategies is provided.
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