ALEXITHYMIA IN PRIMARY HEALTH-CARE PATIENTS

Although many studies have been published about the relationship betwe en alexithymia and different somatic diseases, little is known about t he occurrence of alexithymia in primary health care patients. The aim of the present study was to shed light on this problem. The study form s part of a larger project dealing with psychiatric morbidity in prima ry health care patients. The original material consisted of 1,000 rand omly selected adult patients in Turku in 1989-90. As part of a follow- up study (N = 748) three years later, alexithymia was measured using t he Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS). Primary care patients seemed to ha ve commonly alexithymic features: The mean of the TAS-score was 64.31/-11.71 for male and 63.51+/-11.86 for female patients. The results in dicated that alexithymia was associated with psychological distress, a ge, educational level, and socioeconomic status. The nature of alexith ymia is discussed.