Alexithymia and Health-Related Quality of Life in a General Population

• DOI: 10.1176/appi.psy.50.1.59
• Publication Date: 2009-02-11T22:35:19Z
• Authors: Aino K. Mattila; Samuli I. Saarni; Jouko K. Salminen; Heini Huhtala; Harri Sintonen; Matti Joukamaa
• Keywords: Adult; Aged, 80 and over; Male; Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; Middle Aged; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Prevalence; Quality of Life; Humans; Female; Affective Symptoms; Registries; Finland; Aged

Alexithymia is thought to reflect a deficit in the cognitive processing of emotion, and, therefore, it may predispose individuals to both psychological and somatic symptoms.The authors investigated the relationship between alexithymia and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a nationally representative population sample of 5,418 subjects, age 30 to 97 years.Alexithymia was measured with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and HRQoL measured with the 15D, a generic HRQoL measure.Alexithymia was significantly associated with lower HRQoL independently of other variables. The TAS-20 subfactor Difficulties Identifying Feelings was the strongest common denominator between alexithymia and HRQoL.Alexithymia may be a predisposing factor to poorer HRQoL.