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Difficulties in identifying emotional states in patients treated for depressive disorders compared to patients with selected somatic diseases

Agata Orzechowska, Dominika Berent, Marlena Zajączkowska, Marian Macander, Piotr Gałecki

Med Sci Tech 2013; 54:54-59

DOI: 10.12659/MST.889266


Background: Dysfunction in cognitive and affective domains limiting access to mental states in the self and impairing identification of emotions is defined as alexithymia. It leads to the inability to realize and recognize feelings, to use language to describe them, and to differentiate between emotions and bodily symptoms. Alexithymia is considered to be a stable personality feature, which along with other personality factors predispose to numerous mental and somatic disorders.
Material and Methods: Our test group included 30 patients diagnosed with the following mood disorders: depressive episode and recurrent depressive disorder. The first comparison group consisted of 30 patients treated for coronary heart disease, heart failure, and heart rhythm disorders, some of them with coexisting hypertension and history of myocardial infarction. The second comparison group was composed of 22 outpatients diagnosed with hepatitis C. The Bermond Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire-(BVAQ) was used in the study.
Results: Statistically significant differences were found in most of the dimensions, thus resulting in overall differences in level of alexithymia between groups. There was no difference between groups only in poverty of imagination and concrete thinking. Respondent age and duration of illness coexisted with higher levels of alexithymia (total score) and selected alexithymic dimensions mainly in the group of patients with hepatitis, and also for the entire population.
Conclusions: Respondents with a diagnosis of mood disorders are characterized by greater deficits in identifying and naming their own emotional states as compared to patients with a diagnosis of cardiac disease or viral hepatitis.

Keywords: depressive disorders, alexithymia, somatic diseases

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