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Drug and Alcohol Dependence Jul 2022Adolescent electronic cigarette use (e-cigarette) is a public health concern and factors associated with vaping remain to be understood. Childhood emotional...
BACKGROUND
Adolescent electronic cigarette use (e-cigarette) is a public health concern and factors associated with vaping remain to be understood. Childhood emotional abuse/neglect is a risk factor for e-cigarettes. Yet, pathways by which trauma impacts use remain unclear. Alexithymia (i.e., difficulties identifying and describing feelings) is one possible link. Indeed, emotional abuse/neglect leads to difficulties identifying and verbalizing emotions. This impairment may lead to distress and promote e-cigarette use as a coping strategy.
METHODS
Using parallel mediation, this study examined the degree to which alexithymia, assessed using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, mediates the link between emotional abuse/neglect, assessed using the Child and Adolescent Trauma Screen, and e-cigarette use. The sample (n = 166) consisted of adolescents from a larger multi-wave study.
RESULTS
Emotional abuse/neglect predicted difficulty describing feelings (effect = 0.23, p = 0.001), which in turn predicted e-cigarette use (effect = 0.30, p = 0.004). Moreover, difficulty describing feelings mediated the link between emotional abuse/neglect and e-cigarette use (sum of indirect 95% CI [1.68, 16.48]). Difficulty identifying feelings was not a significant mediator and the externally-oriented thinking subscale was excluded due to low reliability.
CONCLUSIONS
As e-cigarettes are often used in social contexts, teens who experience difficulty describing feelings may vape as a means of connecting emotionally with others. Moreover, nicotine, found in most e-cigarettes, releases dopamine and noradrenaline in the brain modulating action, learning, and memory processes; plausibly, improving verbalization of emotions. Programming which identifies nuances in alexithymia among adolescents with emotional abuse/neglect could mitigate e-cigarette use or delay initiation.
Topics: Adolescent; Adverse Childhood Experiences; Affective Symptoms; Child; Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems; Emotions; Humans; Reproducibility of Results; Vaping
PubMed: 35623159
DOI: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2022.109500 -
Eating and Weight Disorders : EWD Dec 2022Evidence suggests that difficulties identifying and describing one's feelings, core components of alexithymia, are associated with attitudinal and behavioral symptoms of...
Associations among alexithymia, disordered eating, and depressive symptoms in treatment-seeking adolescent military dependents at risk for adult binge-eating disorder and obesity.
PURPOSE
Evidence suggests that difficulties identifying and describing one's feelings, core components of alexithymia, are associated with attitudinal and behavioral symptoms of disordered eating; depressive symptoms also may underlie these associations. Specifically, research indicates that alexithymia is positively related to depressive symptoms, which in turn may promote both disordered-eating attitudes and certain disinhibited-eating behaviors (e.g., emotional eating). Findings also suggest that military-dependent youth with high weight may exhibit elevated depressive symptoms and disordered eating. As such, understanding associations among alexithymia, depressive symptoms, and disordered eating is particularly relevant for this vulnerable population.
METHODS
We examined 149 adolescent military dependents (14.4 ± 1.6y; 55.0% female; 20.0% non-Hispanic Black; BMIz: 1.9 ± 0.4) at high risk for binge-eating disorder and obesity in adulthood. Participants completed questionnaires assessing two components of alexithymia (difficulty identifying feelings [DIF] and difficulty describing feelings [DDF]), depressive symptoms, emotional eating, and trait anxiety; disordered-eating attitudes were assessed via semi-structured interview.
RESULTS
A series of regression-based models examined indirect relationships of DIF and DDF with disordered-eating attitudes and emotional eating through depressive symptoms. Bootstrapped 95% confidence intervals revealed a significant indirect path from each of the alexithymia components to disordered-eating attitudes via depressive symptoms; indirect paths to emotional eating were non-significant.
CONCLUSION
Results support the salience of depressive symptoms in the relationship between alexithymia and disordered-eating attitudes. Future research should utilize prospective designs and explore direct and indirect associations of alexithymia with other disordered-eating behaviors.
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE
Level III, evidence obtained from a well-designed cohort study.
Topics: Adult; Humans; Adolescent; Female; Male; Binge-Eating Disorder; Affective Symptoms; Depression; Military Personnel; Cohort Studies; Obesity; Feeding and Eating Disorders
PubMed: 35852767
DOI: 10.1007/s40519-022-01429-z -
Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews Apr 2018Alexithymia refers to deficiencies in identifying and expressing emotions. This might be related to changes in structural brain volumes, but its neuroanatomical basis... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
Alexithymia refers to deficiencies in identifying and expressing emotions. This might be related to changes in structural brain volumes, but its neuroanatomical basis remains uncertain as studies have shown heterogeneous findings. Therefore, we conducted a parametric coordinate-based meta-analysis. We identified seventeen structural neuroimaging studies (including a total of 2586 individuals with different levels of alexithymia) investigating the association between gray matter volume and alexithymia. Volumes of the left insula, left amygdala, orbital frontal cortex and striatum were consistently smaller in people with high levels of alexithymia. These areas are important for emotion perception and emotional experience. Smaller volumes in these areas might lead to deficiencies in appropriately identifying and expressing emotions. These findings provide the first quantitative integration of results pertaining to the structural neuroanatomical basis of alexithymia.
Topics: Affective Symptoms; Brain; Gray Matter; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Neuroimaging
PubMed: 29360475
DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2018.01.004 -
Scientific Reports Oct 2017Alexithymia is a psychological construct characterized by deficits in processing emotional stimuli. However, little is known about the processing of odours in...
Alexithymia is a psychological construct characterized by deficits in processing emotional stimuli. However, little is known about the processing of odours in alexithymia, even though there is extensive proof that emotion and olfaction are closely linked. The present study is aimed at investigating how alexithymic individuals process emotions conveyed by odors. Emotional responses to unpleasant, neutral odors and clean air were collected through self-report ratings and psychophysiological measures in a sample of 62 healthy participants with high (HA), medium (MA) and low (LA) levels of alexithymia. Moreover, participants performed tests on odors identification and threshold and completed questionnaires assessing olfactory imagery and awareness. Two main results have been found: first, HA and MA groups showed altered physiological responses to odors, compared to LA, while no differences among the groups were observed in odor ratings; and second, affective and cognitive alexithymia components were differently associated with the performance on olfactory tests, skin conductance response to odors, reaction times in the rating task, and scores on olfactory questionnaires. We conclude that alexithymia is characterized by altered physiological reactions to olfactory stimuli; moreover, we stress the importance of evaluating the different alexithymia components since they affect emotional stimuli processing in different ways.
Topics: Adult; Affective Symptoms; Case-Control Studies; Emotions; Female; Humans; Male; Odorants; Personality; Self Report
PubMed: 29074970
DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-14404-x -
Neurologia Jun 2023Alexithymia is a neuropsychiatric symptom conceptualized as difficulty identifying and describing feelings. Although associated with other non-motor symptoms, mainly...
INTRODUCTION
Alexithymia is a neuropsychiatric symptom conceptualized as difficulty identifying and describing feelings. Although associated with other non-motor symptoms, mainly neuropsychiatric, alexithymia may present as an isolated symptom in persons with Parkinson's Disease (PwP). The objective of the study is to identify determinants of alexithymia and its association with quality of life (QoL) in Parkinson's disease.
METHODS
Subjects with Parkinson's disease were recruited. The following instruments were applied: Movement Disorders Society Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (MDS-UPDRS), Non-Motor Symptoms Scale (NMSS), Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), Toronto alexithymia scale (TAS-20) and Parkinson's Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-8). Matched healthy controls were screened using TAS-20. Clinical and demographical variables were compared between alexithymic and non-alexithymic. Regression models were used to find determinants of alexithymia. Impact of alexithymia on QoL was estimated with a linear regression model.
RESULTS
98 patients were included. 56.1% PwP and 28.8% controls were alexithymic (p<0.001). Education level (OR 0.86) and NMSS urinary score (OR 1.09) determined alexithymia as well as TAS-20 score. Alexithymia was an independent determinant of QoL.
CONCLUSIONS
Alexithymia is a prevalent independent non-motor symptom in PwP with impact on QoL. Low education level and urinary symptoms are important determinants of alexithymia.
Topics: Humans; Parkinson Disease; Affective Symptoms; Quality of Life; Mental Status and Dementia Tests; Surveys and Questionnaires
PubMed: 37263728
DOI: 10.1016/j.nrleng.2020.10.015 -
Autism : the International Journal of... Apr 2023Autistic people have more physical health problems than non-autistic people. We were interested in whether autistic people experience more discomfort in their bodies...
Autistic people have more physical health problems than non-autistic people. We were interested in whether autistic people experience more discomfort in their bodies than non-autistic people and whether certain psychological traits contribute to that. A survey was completed online by older adolescents and adults, 51 of whom were autistic, 32 of whom thought they might be autistic but were not diagnosed and 119 who were not autistic. They completed measures of somatic symptoms (daily experience of pain, discomfort, dizziness), alexithymia (difficulty identifying and expressing feelings), interoception (how much people are aware of their bodies) and intolerance of uncertainty (how people handle doubt or uncertainty), and reported any physical or mental health conditions. We found that the autistic participants had more physical and mental health conditions than the non-autistic participants, but even when we took account of this, they experienced higher levels of somatic symptoms. We looked at which psychological factors influenced levels of somatic symptoms across the whole sample, and found that alexithymia, intolerance of uncertainty, having physical health problems, being female and the number of mental health conditions predicted somatic symptoms, while interoception and autism diagnosis did not. The findings suggest that people may be more likely to experience physical discomfort if they are female, and have difficulty identifying and expressing feeling and difficulty tolerating doubt. As these psychological factors are more prominent in autism, we think this is important for physical and mental health providers to know about, so that these psychological factors can be considered when assessing and treating autistic people.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Humans; Female; Male; Autistic Disorder; Affective Symptoms; Uncertainty; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Medically Unexplained Symptoms
PubMed: 35841153
DOI: 10.1177/13623613221109717 -
PloS One 2012Alexithymia is characterized by difficulties in identifying, differentiating and describing feelings. A high prevalence of alexithymia has often been observed in... (Review)
Review
Alexithymia is characterized by difficulties in identifying, differentiating and describing feelings. A high prevalence of alexithymia has often been observed in clinical disorders characterized by low social functioning. This review aims to assess the association between alexithymia and the ability to decode emotional facial expressions (EFEs) within clinical and healthy populations. More precisely, this review has four main objectives: (1) to assess if alexithymia is a better predictor of the ability to decode EFEs than the diagnosis of clinical disorder; (2) to assess the influence of comorbid factors (depression and anxiety disorder) on the ability to decode EFE; (3) to investigate if deficits in decoding EFEs are specific to some levels of processing or task types; (4) to investigate if the deficits are specific to particular EFEs. Twenty four studies (behavioural and neuroimaging) were identified through a computerized literature search of Psycinfo, PubMed, and Web of Science databases from 1990 to 2010. Data on methodology, clinical characteristics, and possible confounds were analyzed. The review revealed that: (1) alexithymia is associated with deficits in labelling EFEs among clinical disorders, (2) the level of depression and anxiety partially account for the decoding deficits, (3) alexithymia is associated with reduced perceptual abilities, and is likely to be associated with impaired semantic representations of emotional concepts, and (4) alexithymia is associated with neither specific EFEs nor a specific valence. These studies are discussed with respect to processes involved in the recognition of EFEs. Future directions for research on emotion perception are also discussed.
Topics: Affective Symptoms; Emotions; Facial Expression; Humans; Neuroimaging
PubMed: 22927931
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0042429 -
Neuropsychologia Feb 2023Neural processing differences of emotional facial expressions, while common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), may be related to co-occurring alexithymia and...
Neural processing differences of emotional facial expressions, while common in autism spectrum disorder (ASD), may be related to co-occurring alexithymia and interoceptive processing differences rather than autism per se. Here, we investigate relationships between alexithymia, interoceptive awareness of emotions, and functional connectivity during observation of facial expressions in youth (aged 8-17) with ASD (n = 28) compared to typically developing peers (TD; n = 37). Behaviorally, we found no significant differences between ASD and TD groups in interoceptive awareness of emotions, though alexithymia severity was significantly higher in the ASD group. In the ASD group, increased alexithymia was significantly correlated with lower interoceptive sensation felt during emotion. Using psycho-physiological interaction (PPI) analysis, the ASD group showed higher functional connectivity between the left ventral anterior insula and the left lateral prefrontal cortex than the TD group when viewing facial expressions. Further, alexithymia was associated with reduced left anterior insula-right precuneus connectivity and reduced right dorsal anterior insula-left ventral anterior insula connectivity when viewing facial expressions. In the ASD group, the degree of interoceptive sensation felt during emotion was positively correlated with left ventral anterior insula-right IFG connectivity when viewing facial expressions. However, across all participants, neither alexithymia nor interoceptive awareness of emotions predicted connectivity between emotion-related brain regions when viewing emotional facial expressions. To summarize, we found that in ASD compared to TD: 1) there is stronger connectivity between the insula and lateral prefrontal cortex; and 2) differences in interhemispheric and within left hemisphere connectivity between the insula and other emotion-related brain regions are related to individual differences in interoceptive processing and alexithymia. These results highlight complex relationships between alexithymia, interoception, and brain processing in ASD.
Topics: Adolescent; Humans; Affective Symptoms; Autism Spectrum Disorder; Interoception; Facial Expression; Emotions; Magnetic Resonance Imaging
PubMed: 36610493
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2023.108469 -
Psychiatry Research Mar 2019Alexithymia, or the inability to identify and describe one's emotions, is significantly higher in bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SZ), compared to healthy... (Comparative Study)
Comparative Study
Alexithymia, or the inability to identify and describe one's emotions, is significantly higher in bipolar disorder (BD) and schizophrenia (SZ), compared to healthy controls (HC). Alexithymia has also been observed to predict psychosocial functioning in SZ. We investigated whether alexithymia predicted social and everyday functioning in BD, as well as transdiagnostically in HC, BD, and SZ patients. 56 BD, 45 SZ, and 50 HC were administered and compared on tests measuring neurocognition, social cognition, functioning and alexithymia. We conducted linear regressions assessing whether alexithymia predicted functional outcomes in BD. Next, we conducted hierarchical stepwise linear regressions investigating the predictive ability of neurocognition, social cognition and alexithymia on everyday and social functioning in our overall sample. BD and SZ patients were comparable on most demographics and demonstrated higher alexithymia compared to HCs. In BD, alexithymia predicted social functioning only. In the overall sample, difficulty identifying and describing feelings predicted everyday functioning; difficulty describing feelings predicted social functioning. Results suggest that aspects of alexithymia significantly predict functioning among these psychiatric groups, above and beyond the contributions of previously identified factors such as neurocognition and social cognition. Results may aid in developing proper interventions aimed at improving patients' ability to articulate their feelings.
Topics: Adult; Affective Symptoms; Bipolar Disorder; Female; Human Activities; Humans; Linear Models; Male; Mental Status and Dementia Tests; Middle Aged; Schizophrenic Psychology; Social Behavior
PubMed: 30658205
DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2019.01.033 -
Psychiatria Danubina 2022The popularity of smart phones not only brings great convenience to people's lives, but also makes people more dependent on them. This study aims to explore the causes...
BACKGROUND
The popularity of smart phones not only brings great convenience to people's lives, but also makes people more dependent on them. This study aims to explore the causes of mobile phone addiction in adolescents and clarify its correlation with childhood abuse, neglect, and alexithymia.
SUBJECTS AND METHODS
A total of 684 middle school students from Jingzhou City in China were selected as research participants to investigate the degree of childhood psychological abuse, neglect and alexithymia by using the "Child Psychological Abuse and Neglect Scale (CPANS)," "Mobile Phone Addiction Tendency Scale (MPATS)," and "Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS)". According to survey results of mobile phone addiction, they were divided into the tendency group and the control group.
RESULTS
Students in the tendency group have shown higher scores in the dimensions of psychological abuse (scolding, intimidation and interference), neglect (emotional, education, physical/supervisory), compared to the control group. The total scores of psychological abuse and neglect were positively related to the total score of mobile phone addiction tendency. Students in the tendency group have shown higher scores in emotion identification difficulty, emotion description difficulty, extroversion thinking, and total scores of alexithymia than those of control group. The total score of alexithymia was positively related to the total score of mobile phone addiction tendency. Regression analysis has shown that childhood psychological abuse and neglect could significantly predict the mobile phone addiction status in students. Alexithymia could also significantly predict the mobile phone addiction status among the student sample.
CONCLUSION
Childhood abuse, neglect, and alexithymia were positively related to mobile phone addiction, and all of them had a significant regression-based predictive role regarding the mobile phone addiction in adolescents.
Topics: Humans; Adolescent; Child; Affective Symptoms; Physical Abuse; Emotions; Technology Addiction; Child Abuse; Cell Phone
PubMed: 36548877
DOI: 10.24869/psyd.2022.653