Temporal stability of alexithymia in cancer patients following a psychological intervention

Porcelli, Piero; Tulipani, Cinzia; Micco, Concetta Di; Spedicato, Maria Rosaria; Maiello, Evaristo

doi:10.1002/jclp.20839

Cited by 23 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…There is some evidence from uncontrolled pre–post studies to support the use of other therapies in treating alexithymia, including cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT),44 45 psychodynamic group therapy7 and voice movement therapy 46. An RCT comparing the effect of a psychoeducation and cognitive restructuring programme for patients with cancer with standard medical care resulted in a much greater difference in mean TAS20 between the groups after treatment than found in the current meta-analysis (MD=−17.29, CI −22.52 to −12.06) 17. However, the difference was due in large part to a significant increase in TAS20 in the control group, which may be a specific feature of the oncological population or, as the authors suggest, may have been a secondary effect of the increase in anxiety associated with illness.…”

Section: Conclusion and Clinical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 67%

“…The growing consensus is that alexithymia is a trait with relative, rather than absolute, stability, which means that it can be modified through treatment, but that differences between individuals remain largely the same over time 17. A further consideration is whether any reduction in alexithymia as a result of treatment has any effect on the individual’s health or well-being.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of mindfulness-based interventions on alexithymia: a systematic review

Norman

Marzano

Coulson

et al. 2018

Evid Based Mental Health

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Section: Conclusion and Clinical Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 67%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of mindfulness-based interventions on alexithymia: a systematic review

Norman

Marzano

Coulson

et al. 2018

Evid Based Mental Health

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“…severity and physical limitations) on HRQOL (route C in Fig 2). Although personality traits have a considerable hereditary component and are less modifiable than HRQOL [111], some evidence suggests individuals who experience traumatic events (e.g., crime and hurricane [112]) or deteriorating health states (e.g., stroke, respiratory disease [113, 114] or cancer [115]) may trigger the change of personality to some extent. Recent studies even suggest that individuals who experience traumatic events may encounter positive personality change (or post-traumatic growth) [116, 117].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does personality affect health-related quality of life? A systematic review

et al. 2017

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BackgroundHealth-related quality of life (HRQOL) is increasingly measured as an outcome for clinical and health services research. However, relatively little is known about how non-health factors affect HRQOL. Personality is a potentially important factor, yet evidence regarding the effects of personality on HRQOL measures is unclear.MethodsThis systematic review examined the relationships among aspects of personality and HRQOL. Eligible studies were identified from Medline and PsycINFO. The review included 76 English-language studies with HRQOL as a primary outcome and that assessed personality from the psychological perspective. Individuals with various health states, including ill (e.g., cancer, cardiovascular disorders), aging, and healthy, were included in this review study.ResultsSome personality characteristics were consistently related to psychosocial aspects more often than physical aspects of HRQOL. Personality characteristics, especially neuroticism, mastery, optimism, and sense of coherence were most likely to be associated with psychosocial HRQOL. Personality explained varying proportions of variance in different domains of HRQOL. The range of variance explained in psychosocial HRQOL was 0 to 45% and the range of explained variance in physical HRQOL was 0 to 39%.ConclusionsPersonality characteristics are related to HRQOL. Systematic collection and analysis of personality data alongside HRQOL measures may be helpful in medical research, clinical practice, and health policy evaluation.

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“…Alexithymic features may therefore be a consequence rather than a predisposing factor of the illness status. Furthermore, some studies showed the relative stability of alexithymia within the context of change of symptoms following treatment both in FGID (Porcelli et al, 2003 , 2017 ) and cancer patients (Luminet et al, 2007 ; Porcelli et al, 2011 ), but the cross-sectional design of most reviewed studies does not allow to infer to which extent trait alexithymia may predict the course of illness over time.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Alexithymia in Gastroenterology and Hepatology: A Systematic Review

Carrozzino

Porcelli

2018

Front. Psychol.

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Background: Alexithymia is a multifaceted personality construct that represents a deficit in the cognitive processing of emotions and is currently understood to be related to a variety of medical and psychiatric conditions. The present review aims to investigate the relationship of alexithymia with gastrointestinal (GI) disorders as functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID, as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and functional dyspepsia) and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) [ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn's disease (CD)] and liver diseases as chronic hepatitis C (CHC), cirrhosis, and liver transplantation.Methods: The articles were selected from the main electronic databases (PsycInfo, Medline, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Cochrane, and ScienceDirect) using multiple combinations of relevant search terms (defined GI and liver diseases, articles in English, use of the Toronto scales [TAS] for alexithymia). The TAS was selected as inclusion criterion because it is the most widely used measure, thus allowing comparisons across studies.Results: Forty-eight studies met the inclusion criteria, of which 38 focused on GI disorders (27 on FGID and 11 on IBD) and 10 on liver diseases. Most studies (n = 30, 62%) were cross-sectional. The prevalence of alexithymia was higher in FGID (two third or more) than IBD and liver diseases (from one third to 50% of patients, consistent with other chronic non-GI diseases) than general population (10–15%). In functional disorders, alexithymia may be viewed as a primary driver for higher visceral perception, symptom reporting, health care use, symptom persistence, and negative treatment outcomes. Also, it has been found associated with psychological distress and specific GI-related forms of anxiety in predicting symptom severity as well as post-treatment outcomes and is associated with several psychological factors increasing the burden of disease and impairing levels of quality of life. A number of critical issues (small sample sizes, patients referred to secondary and tertiary care centers, cross-sectional study design, use of one single scale for alexithymia) constitutes a limitation to the generalization of findings.Conclusions: Alexithymia showed to play different roles in gastroenterology according to the clinical characteristics and the psychological burden of the various disorders, with main relevance in increasing subjective symptom perception and affecting negatively post-treatment outcomes.

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Temporal stability of alexithymia in cancer patients following a psychological intervention

Abstract: This study confirms the relative stability of alexithymia and that the lack of absolute stability of the construct is influenced by psychological intervention in cancer patients.

Cited by 23 publications

References 48 publications

Effects of mindfulness-based interventions on alexithymia: a systematic review

Effects of mindfulness-based interventions on alexithymia: a systematic review

Does personality affect health-related quality of life? A systematic review

Alexithymia in Gastroenterology and Hepatology: A Systematic Review

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