PAIN SENSITIVITY, ALEXITHYMIA, AND DEPRESSION IN PATIENTS WITH EATINGDISORDERS - ARE THEY RELATED

A decreased sensitivity to painful stimuli and high scores for alexith ymia and depression have been observed in patients with eating disorde rs. We investigated the relationship between these factors in 22 patie nts with anorexia nervosa, 18 patients with bulimia nervosa, and 32 he althy subjects. Alexithymia was assessed using the 20-item Toronto Ale xithymia Scale and depression using the Beck Depression Inventory. Pat ients with bulimia exhibited significantly higher thresholds to mechan ically induced pain than healthy subjects. Thresholds to thermally ind uced pain in patients with anorexia or bulimia were similar and signif icantly higher than in the healthy subjects. Alexithymia and depressio n scores were significantly higher in anorexic and bulimic patients th an in the healthy subjects. Analyses of covariance revealed that the d egree of alexithymia did not influence thresholds to thermally and mec hanically induced pain, whereas the severity of depression affected to some extent the threshold to thermally induced pain.