THE RELATIONSHIP OF ALEXITHYMIA TO SUBJECTIVE AND BIOMEDICAL MEASURESOF DISEASE

Although alexithymia is found in patients with various somatic disorde rs, it is unclear whether alexithymia is related to organic disease, o r just to illness behavior In 2 studies of patients, the authors relat ed alexithymia (using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 for assessment) to both subjective reports and biomedical measures of disease. In Stu dy I, alexithymia was correlated with symptoms, but not CD4 counts, am ong adults who had tested positive for the human immunodeficiency viru s. In Study 2, alexithymia was associated with the presence or absence of chest pain during exercise testing, but not with ischemic heart di sease. These studies suggest that alexithymia, especially difficulty i dentifying and/or describing feelings, is related to increased illness behavior but alexithymia may not be related to the presence or severi ty of organic disease.