Citation

Sagar R, Talwar S, Desai G, Chaturvedi S. Indian J. Psychiatry 2021; 63(2): 127-133.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Medknow Publications)

DOI

10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_738_19

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

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. © 2021 Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications. All rights reserved.

Language: en

Keywords

human; Review; psychotherapy; depression; anxiety; suicide attempt; treatment outcome; disease severity; alexithymia; review; anorexia; bulimia; eating disorder; mental disease; Alexithymia; life satisfaction; paranoia; drug dependence; schizoidism; social phobia; data analysis; sample size; gastrointestinal disease; Parkinson disease; Beck Depression Inventory; narrative; multiple sclerosis; dyspepsia; Montgomery Asberg Depression Rating Scale; avoidant personality disorder; biological trait; meta analysis (topic); Self-rating Depression Scale; Toronto Alexithymia scale; Personality Disorder Questionnaire; myofascial pain; Indian culture; mental compliance; Somatosensory Amplification Scale; State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory; symptom interpretation questionnaire; trait