Inhaltszusammenfassung

It is proposed that a dysfunctional cognitive processing of emotion is the underlying pathophysiological correlate of alexithymia. Further, there is some evidence that alexithymic subjects have an impaired ability to interpret emotional facial expressions. This study explored the hypothesis of an association of alexithymia and deficits in facial emotion recognition (FER) in a psychiatric patient sample. 68 in-and outpatients with substance use-, affective-, anxiety-, somatoform-or personality...It is proposed that a dysfunctional cognitive processing of emotion is the underlying pathophysiological correlate of alexithymia. Further, there is some evidence that alexithymic subjects have an impaired ability to interpret emotional facial expressions. This study explored the hypothesis of an association of alexithymia and deficits in facial emotion recognition (FER) in a psychiatric patient sample. 68 in-and outpatients with substance use-, affective-, anxiety-, somatoform-or personality disorders were assessed with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Symptom Check-List (SCL-90-R), and the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS). Subjects performed recognition tasks of facial expressions, gradually increasing the emotional expression from neutral faces to maximal expression of the 6 basic emotions. In multiple regression analysis the TAS-20 score was associated with general errors in FER (beta = .38, t = 2.055,p < .05) and errors in the recognition of anger (beta = .40 t = 2.240, p < .05) and disgust (beta = .41 t = 2.214, p < .05) among female subjects. In this group, TAS-20 scores explained 13.3 % (anger) and 19.7 % (disgust) of the variation in recognition errors. This association was not explained by psychiatric diagnoses or medication. Our results confirm the association between alexithymia and deficits in FER of negative emotions. Our findings may explain some of the difficulties of alexithymics in social settings. » weiterlesen» einklappen

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