آلکسیتیمیا در افراد الکلی مرد: مطالعه در یک نمونه ترکیه

The prevalence of alexithymia among male alcoholic cases in a clinical sample from the Turkish population and the relationship between alexithymia and clinical characteristics of alcoholics were studied. Participants were 56 males with alcohol dependence. Alcohol dependence was diagnosed by means of the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID-I), Turkish version. Alexithymia was screened using the 20-item version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Almost 42% of the patients with alcoholism had a score greater than 60 on the TAS-20, and were therefore considered as alexithymic. The alexithymic patients were found to have a lower level of education and poor economic status. In addition, the severity of alcoholism and duration of alcohol use has been shown to be associated with alexithymia. These results suggest that there was a strong connection between alexithymia and alcoholism. However, the prevalence of alexithymia was not different in Turkish alcoholic men compared with Western alcoholic men.

THE ORIGINAL DEFINITION given to alexithymia is the inability to identify and use language to describe feelings.1 Alexithymia generally is thought to be a stable personality trait and a predisposing risk factor for a variety of psychiatric disorders.2 Many studies have indicated relatively high prevalence rates of alexithymia in psychosomatic disorder,3 depressive disorder,4 somatoform disorder,5 post-traumatic stress disorder,6 panic disorder,7 and substance-related disorders.8 and 9 Wise et al.10 suggested that alexithymic individuals were more introverted and less socially comfortable, probably as a result of difficulty communicating their feelings. Rybakowski et al.11 noted that alcohol intake might be a way to alleviate stress situations in alexithymic subjects and facilitate their verbal and emotional personal contacts. The rewarding experience with alcohol may eventually lead to the development of dependence. Thus, prevalence of alexithymic features in alcoholic subjects is higher than those in the general population.12 and 13 On the other hand, Freyberger14 divided alexithymia into two types, primary as a personality trait and secondary as a state reaction. Haviland et al.15 found that alexithymic characteristics of newly abstinent alcoholics decreased as their treatment progressed, and they concluded that alexithymia is a state reaction in many patients with alcohol dependence. Their proposal has been supported by many recent studies.16, 17 and 18 The prevalence of alexithymia among alcoholic patients has been reported to range from 48% to 78% in several studies.11, 12, 19 and 20 These studies on alcoholism and alexithymia have mainly been carried out in the Western population. However, many authors21, 22 and 23 reported that cultural differences might influence the prevalence of alexithymia. Leff 24 insisted that people from developed countries show a grater differentiation of emotional states than those in developing countries and that some languages impose constraints on the expression of emotion. Therefore, it may not be appropriate to generalize Western findings to all countries. However, the number of studies about alcoholism and alexithymia in developing countries is limited. In this study, we aimed to identify the prevalence of alexithymia and related clinical features with alexithymia in a sample of male alcoholic outpatients in a developing country, Turkey.