Alexithymia & PTSD
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Alexithymia is a psychiatric condition in which certain mental and emotional functions are disturbed, and the patients cannot identify and describe their feelings, have no fantasy life, and have a tendency to describe physical symptoms rather than the underlying emotions (Zeitlin, Lane, O'Leary and Schrift, 1989, 1434-1439). It is found in patients suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, psychosomatic complaints, substance abusers, and also those in whom no psychiatric disorder is present. Although the physiological mechanism for the disorder has yet to be elucidated, it has been theorized that alexithymia results from a deficit in the communications between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. Since emotions are thought to originate in the right brain, and verbal skills in the left brain of most right-handed individuals, a deficit in communications would leave a person unable to express their emotions. This theory is supported by the fact that patients who have surgery to the corpus callosum connecting the two hemispheres for treatment of epilepsy have similar symptoms to alexithymia. A study looking at interhemispheric transfer involving Vietnam veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder used a tactile test requiring one hand to respond when the other hand sensed a stimulus. Poor performance indicated poor interhemispheric communication, and was found in subjects with alexithymia, but not in those without alexithymia or in normal controls, providing fu
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, and personality disorder in 60 adults who were receiving outpatient therapy. Both participants and therapists used the Toronto Alexithymia Scale to provide independent information about the patient's level of alexithymia, and the therapist used the DSM-III-R to diagnose personality disorder, and provided information regarding the childhood abuse of the patient. Childhood abuse, alexithymia, and personality disorder were all found to be associated with each other, and the abilities to identify and communicate emotions were differentially associated with child abuse and personality disorder.
Parental bonding was studied by Fukunishi et al (1997, 143-146) to look at its association with alexithymia in adults in a study of 232 college students. Mother's care was rated by the subjects on the Parental Bonding Inventory and they correlated significantly negatively with the scores on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the ratings on Difficulty Describing Feelings but not Difficulty Identifying Feelings and Externally Oriented Thinking. A further study involving 156 college students generated the same results. The findings indicate that perceived mother's low care relates to an adult's scores on the alexithymia scale, particularly
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Approximate Word count = 2604
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)
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