DECREASED CYTOTOXIC LYMPHOCYTE COUNTS IN ALEXITHYMIA

Background: Alexithymia is a psychological trait characterized by a di fficulty in verbalizing feelings, which has been associated with a num ber of illnesses, including bronchial asthma and cancer. Methods: In o rder to understand how psychological variables such as alexithymia aff ect physical health, we compared the lymphocyte subsets of men (n=97, mean 30.6) rated as high and low alexithymic when measured by the Toro nto Alexithymia Scale (TAS). We analyzed our data by considering alexi thymia a categorical variable, using TAS scores of 62 and below, and 7 4 and above, and by considering alexithymia a continuous variable, usi ng the mean TAS score (64.01) separating high from low alexithymia. Re sults: When alexithymia was considered a categorical variable, highly alexithymic men had significantly lower numbers of the most cytotoxic natural killer (NK) subset, (CD57-CD16+ cells). When alexithymia was c onsidered a continuous variable, in addition to the NK subset, killer effector T cell (CD8+CD11a+cells) count was also significantly lower. These results were obtained after controlling for possible effects of smoking and alcohol intake. Conclusions: These results suggest that th e negative modulation of cellular immunity, especially the cytotoxic l ymphocytes, may be one mechanism which, combined with other factors th at have a negative effect on the immune system such as stress, results in the association between alexithymia and ill health. It is suggeste d that future studies should, in addition to cell counts, attempt to i dentify the effects of psychological variables on the cytolytic activi ty of cytotoxic lymphocytes. Furthermore, follow-up studies should mon itor the subjects over the years to demonstrate that alexithymia-media ted negative modulation of the immune system results in clinical patho logies.