Alexithymia and Chronic Pain: Prevalence, Correlates and Treatment Results

Abstract

The alexithymia scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory was used to determine the prevalence of alexithymia in a group of 60 patients attending a chronic pain clinic. It was found that 28 patients (47%) obtained scores in the ‘alexithymic’ range. The alexithymic patients had a significantly longer history of pain, but were not significantly older than the nonalexithymic group. Alexithymic patients showed significantly lower neuroticism, hypochondriasis, affective disturbance, and irritability scores. In a pilot study two subgroups of 15 alexithymic and 15 non-alexithymic patients were compared following a period of treatment; in both groups equal proportions of patients showed significant pain relief. Although this study does not support the view that alexithymia is of significance in the psychomaintenance of chronic pain, it is suggested that clinicians working with chronic pain patients should be familiar with the concept of alexithymia.

Controlled Study of Alexithymic Characteristics in Patients with Psychogenic Pain Disorder

“…Though earlier studies have re ported the presence of alexithymia in pain patients [15][16][17][18], this is probably the first study which has found a higher degree of alexithymia in pain patients in contrast to a healthy control group. In view of the se lective nature of the sample, the findings of the present study cannot be applied to pain patients at large.…”

“…A number of studies have examined alexi thymic characteristics in different clinical populations like inflammatory bowel disease [6,7], peptic ulcer [8], chronic respiratory illness [9], migraine [10], hypertension [11,12], anorexia nervosa [13], medical patients [14] and chronic pain patients [15][16][17][18], The concept has been reviewed by Lesser [ 19,20] and Taylor [21]. A primary and secondary form of the disturbance have been described [22].…”

“…Blumer and Heilbronn [29] observed that chronic pain patients typi cally display alexithymie characteristics. Mendelson [15] reported that 47% of pain patients were alexithymie. Cohen et al [ 16], using the SAT-9, found that pain patients exhibited impaired symbolic functioning.…”

“…Certain methodological prob lems are to be noted in the earlier studies. These are: (1) Failure to use clearly defined criteria for case selection [15,16]; (2) use of measures like the MMPI alexithymia scale [15], the validity of which has been ques tioned [30], and (3) failure to use a matched healthy control group [15][16][17], Use of a healthy control group is essential since alexi thymia is reported to be influenced by socio demographic variables [31,32], The aim of the present study was to sys tematically assess alexithymie characteristics in patients with psychogenic pain disorder in comparison with a healthy control group matched on sociodemographic variables.…”

•Chronic pain, psychological factors and depression

“…Yapılan bir takım çalışmalar, kronik hasta gruplarında yük-sek aleksitimi yaygınlığı bildirmektedirler. [9][10][11][12][13] Kronik ağrı hastalarında çocuklukta ihmal edilmişlik ve bastırılmış agresyon gibi değişik unsurlar da tanımlanmış, 8 öfke ve hostilitenin ağrının gelişmesi ve devam etmesinde önemli rolü olduğu bildirilmiştir. Öfke ifade biçimi, bu hastalarda üze-rinde durulan konulardan biridir.…”