Auditory sensation with affective agnosia: A prevalence of alexithymia among tinnitus patients

Bakhla, Ajay Kumar; Dayal, Meenakshi; Bala, Rajni; Toppo, Ashit

doi:10.4103/ipj.ipj_40_18

Cited by 1 publication

(11 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Both Bakhla et al [107] and Wielopolski et al [108] observed positive correlations between subjectively reported tinnitus-related distress, measured by Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI), and alexithymia. Bakhla et al [107] suggest that higher tinnitus-related distress may be associated with difficulties in describing or identifying emotions-likely in those individuals who are vulnerable to react to the tinnitus sound in a distressed manner.…”

Section: Chronic Tinnitus and Alexithymiamentioning

confidence: 98%

“…Given the co-occurrence of chronic tinnitus and other somatization symptoms against a backdrop of personality-related vulnerability factors as well as pre-existing depressivity or anxiety, respectively, surprisingly few studies investigated associations between alexithymia and chronic tinnitus-although one study found the prevalence of pronounced alexithymia to be as high as 65.7% in a sample of patients with chronic tinnitus [107]. Both Bakhla et al [107] and Wielopolski et al [108] observed positive correlations between subjectively reported tinnitus-related distress, measured by Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI), and alexithymia. Bakhla et al [107] suggest that higher tinnitus-related distress may be associated with difficulties in describing or identifying emotions-likely in those individuals who are vulnerable to react to the tinnitus sound in a distressed manner.…”

Section: Chronic Tinnitus and Alexithymiamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Two of the included studies were conducted in the European Region (2/3, 66.6%) and one within the South-East Asia Region (1/3, 33.3%). All of these studies were designed as cross-sectional studies and assessed alexithymia via TAS-20 [107][108][109]. Tinnitus was assessed by THI by Bakhla et al [107] and Wielopolskiet al [108].…”

Section: Study Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…All of these studies were designed as cross-sectional studies and assessed alexithymia via TAS-20 [107][108][109]. Tinnitus was assessed by THI by Bakhla et al [107] and Wielopolskiet al [108]. Salonen et al [109] used an individual tinnitus questionnaire.…”

Section: Study Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Salonen et al [109] used an individual tinnitus questionnaire. Sample sizes ranged from 70 [107] to 583 subjects [109].…”

Section: Study Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Alexithymia in Patients with Somatization Difficulties and Tinnitus-Related Distress: A Systematic Review

Freiherr von Schoenhueb,

Boecking,

Mazurek

2023

JCM

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Chronic tinnitus, the perception of sound without an external source, can significantly affect individuals’ well-being. As an often medically unexplained symptom, chronic tinnitus can present as a “somatoform” or “functional” difficulty. Some evidence has pointed to alexithymia as a transdiagnostically relevant risk factor for both symptom clusters. Using a two-part rapid review—searching within EBSCO, Embase by Ovid, PubMed, Web of Science—we summarize psychological studies regarding alexithymia, i.e., difficulties in recognizing and expressing emotions and (1) somatoform conditions and (2) chronic tinnitus. For the former (inclusion criteria: (1) adult human beings with different kinds of somatization, (2) longitudinal study designs, (3) publication between 2001 and 2021, (4) full-text in English or German) we identified eight studies that revealed significant links between alexithymia and somatoform conditions. Psychotherapy improved alexithymia in most studies. Additionally, alexithymia was associated with broader treatment outcomes such as improvements in pain intensity, gastrointestinal symptoms, and patient-therapist alliance. The ‘Risk Of Bias In Non-randomized Studies-of Interventions’ tool (ROBINS-I) and ‘Revised Cochrane risk-of-bias tool for randomized trials’ (RoB 2) were used for risk of bias assessment. Summarizing all available studies on alexithymia and chronic tinnitus, we identified three studies. Inclusion criteria were: (1) adult human beings with chronic tinnitus, (2) publication between 2001 and 2021, (3) full-text in English or German. Risk of bias was assessed by the ‘JBI Critical Appraisal Checklist for Analytical Cross Sectional Studies’. The available studies suggested a high rate of alexithymia (65.7%) in patients with chronic tinnitus. Tinnitus-related distress was significantly associated with alexithymia in two studies, one of which, however, found no differences in alexithymia between patients with bothersome versus non-bothersome tinnitus. Conversely, one study reported high levels of alexithymia in patients with low levels of tinnitus-related distress. Overall, alexithymia may be a transdiagnostic psychological indicator of somatization phenomena, which might include some chronic tinnitus presentations. Psychotherapy likely improves alexithymia as well as somatoform symptom presentations.

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Section: Chronic Tinnitus and Alexithymiamentioning

confidence: 98%