Alexithymia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Alexithymia (pronounced: /ˌeɪlɛksəˈθaɪmiə/) from the Greek words λεξις and θυμος, literally "without words for emotions") was a term coined by Peter Sifneos in 1972 to describe people who appeared to have deficiencies in understanding, processing, or describing their emotions. Deficiencies may include:
- problems identifying, describing, and working with one's own feelings, often marked by a lack of understanding of the feelings of others;
- confusion of physical sensations often associated with emotions;
- few dreams or fantasies due to restricted imagination; and
- concrete, realistic, logical thinking, often to the exclusion of emotional responses to problems.
- Those who have Alexithymia also report very logical and realistic dreams, such as going to the store or eating supper.
Alexithymia is classified as a mental disorder in the DSM IV. It is also a personality trait that varies in severity from person to person. A person's alexithymia score can be measured with questionnaires, such as the Toronto Alexithymia Scale.
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[edit] Comorbidity
Alexithymics are believed to be at higher risk of developing personality disorders. Also, alexithymia is correlated with particular psychosomatic illnesses, such as hypertension, functional gastrointestinal disorders, substance use disorders, and some anxiety disorders [1].
[edit] Etiology
It is unclear what causes alexithymia. Some neuropsychological studies indicate that alexithymia may be due to a disturbance to the right hemisphere of the brain, which is largely responsible for processing emotions [2]. Other studies show evidence that there may be an interhemispheric transfer deficit among alexithymics; that is, the emotional information from the right hemisphere is not being properly transferred to the language regions in the left hemisphere [3]. In addition, another neuropsychological model suggests that alexithymia may be related to a dysfunction of the anterior cingulate cortex [4]. These studies have some shortcomings, however, and the empirical evidence about the causes of alexithymia remain inconclusive (for a review, see [5]).
[edit] References
- [1] Taylor, G. J., Bagby, R. M., & Parker, J. D. A. (1999). Disorders of affect regulation: Alexithymia in medical and psychiatric illness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- [2] Jessimer, M., & Markham, R. (1997). Alexithymia: A right hemisphere dysfunction specific to recognition of certain facial expressions? Brain & Cognition, 34, 246-258.
- [3] Hoppe, K. D., & Bogen, J. E. (1977). Alexithymia in twelve commissurotomized patients. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 28, 148-155.
- [4] Lane, R. D., Ahern, G. L., Schwartz, G. E., & Kaszniak, A. W. (1997). Is alexithymia the emotional equivalent of blindsight? Biological Psychiatry, 42, 834-844.
- [5] Tabibnia, G., & Zaidel, E. (2005). Alexithymia, interhemispheric transfer, and right hemispheric specialization: A critical review. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 74, 81-92.
[edit] External links
- Alexithymia
- alexithymia.info Definitions of alexithymia
