What does the Toronto Alexithymia Scale TAS‐R measure?

Abstract

One hundred seventy four inpatients of a psychosomatic hospital were examined with the revised version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale TAS-R, as well as further measures of emotionality, somatization, psychopathology and personality. A significant association was found between TAS alexithymia and the number of somatoform symptoms. This association, however, disappeared when it was corrected for the possible impact of depression. The factor 1 of the TAS (ability to describe feelings to others) correlated significantly with the use of negative emotional words. Thus TAS alexithymics do not use less, but more emotional words, especially words describing negative feelings.

The predictive value of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale among patients with asthma

“…The IDE and the COM subscales have been consistently linked to greater report of negative affect and physical symptoms, and these effects appear to be stronger for the IDE subscale [9][10][11][12][13]. However, there has been considerable debate as to whether these subscales are measuring distinct traits of alexithymia or simply tapping a general construct of psychological distress [14]. A recent factor analysis showed that the IDE subscale loads on the construct of anxiety, whereas depression may be more independent from alexithymia [12].…”

Brainstem Midline Assessed by Transcranial Sonography in Parkinson's Disease: Further Evidence of a Different Etiopathogenesis of Alexithymia and Depression

“…The global cognitive status was assessed with the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE). The presence and severity of depression was assessed by Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) which classifies depressive symptoms as mild mood disturbance (score from 11 to 16), borderline clinical depression (score [17][18][19][20], moderate depression (score 21-30), severe depression (score 31-40), extreme depression (score over 40).…”

“…Previous research has generated controversy as to whether alexithymia and depression are distinct or overlapping constructs [4,19,20]. The disentanglement of the two disorders is important because alexithymic patients do not seem to respond satisfactorily to antidepressants and should be directed to psychotherapies involving specific techniques to enhance emotional awareness and integrate symbolic and subsymbolic elements of emotion schemas [21,22].…”

Emotional categorization: Individual emotional differences and laterality effects in healthy and persons with multiple sclerosis

“…However, neuropsychological studies have shown that patients with brain damage in the right hemisphere perform worse than patients with brain damage in the left hemisphere when processing and organizing emotional experience [66,67]. In functional terms, alexithymia represents a unique personality trait that might predispose individuals to somatic and mental disorders [68]. The psychological studies have highlighted that alexithymia is correlated with both anxiety and depression [68,69].…”

“…In functional terms, alexithymia represents a unique personality trait that might predispose individuals to somatic and mental disorders [68]. The psychological studies have highlighted that alexithymia is correlated with both anxiety and depression [68,69]. It has also been found that alexthymic individuals use more emotional words, specifically the negative ones.…”