آلکسیتیمیا و تقویت کننده حسی در سوء هاضمه عملکردی

Somatosensory amplification is the tendency to report somatic sensations as intense and disturbing. Alexithymia is a personality construct characterized by difficulty recognizing emotions and a tendency to focus on external events and bodily sensations. The association of somatosensory amplification and alexithymia with functional symptoms was assessed in 111 patients with functional dyspepsia and 53 healthy comparison subjects. The subjects completed several assessment instruments, including the Somatosensory Amplification Scale and the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale. The patients with dyspepsia had modestly higher scores on measures of alexithymia (especially difficulty identifying feelings) and somatosensory amplification. Alexithymia and somatosensory amplification may play important roles in symptom generation and perception in a subset of patients with functional dyspepsia, but the importance of these constructs in this patient population appears less than previously reported. Somatization has been frequently described in association with functional dyspepsia,1., 2., 3. and 4. yet in the clinical practice of gastroenterology, somatization remains a misunderstood and often mismanaged concept. In its broadest definition, somatization is the articulation of psychosocial and emotional distress through physical symptoms.5,6 Although a minority of patients may seek the sick role without truly feeling unwell (i.e., malingering), most patients with somatization truly perceive themselves as ill. Somatization is a complex construct and is linked to a variety of patient factors. Somatosensory amplification refers to the tendency to experience somatic sensations as intense, noxious, and disturbing.7 Somatosensory amplification is a useful construct in assessing the perceptual styles of patients with psychosomatic illness. Alexithymia is a personality construct that is useful in the assessment of patients with psychosomatic disorders. Alexithymia refers to difficulty describing one's own emotions in words and the tendency to instead focus on the details of external events at the expense of articulating one's true emotional distress.8 As somatosensory amplification and alexithymia both address facets of somatization, some investigators have reported a positive correlation between the two constructs.9,10 Several studies have demonstrated somatosensory amplification and alexithymia in patients with chronic pain, patients with somatoform disorders, and poorly characterized patients with functional gastrointestinal disorders. To our knowledge, no study has evaluated these constructs in a well-defined group of patients with functional dyspepsia. The aim of this study was to assess the severity of alexithymia and somatosensory amplification in patients with functional dyspepsia (as defined by the Rome II criteria), compared with healthy subjects.