ALEXITHYMIA AND PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTRESS AMONG FREQUENT ATTENDANCE PATIENTS IN HEALTH-CARE

Background: The aim of the present study was to find out whether alexi thymia is common in frequently attending primary health care patients and whether alexithymia and psychological distress are associated in t hese patients. Methods: Alexithymia was measured by the TAS-26 and psy chological distress by the SCL-25 in a random sample of 394 working-ag e primary health care patients. Frequent attendance was defined as a m inimum of 11 visits during 1 year to different kinds of outpatient hea lth care services, excluding specialized psychiatric care. Results: Fr equently attending patients with psychological distress were found to be alexithymic more commonly than other patients, but this was not the case with other frequently attending patients. In other words, freque nt attendance and alexithymia had an association mediated by psycholog ical distress. Conclusions: There is a subgroup of frequently attendin g patients, who are alexithymic and have psychological distress, too. They usually visit health-care services because of a somatic complaint . We hypothesize that their expression of psychological distress was m asked and somatized just because of alexithymia.