Taylor Graeme J, Bagby R Michael
Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto and Mount Sinai Hospital, Clarke Site, Toronto, Canada.
Psychother Psychosom. 2004 Mar-Apr;73(2):68-77. doi: 10.1159/000075537.
Research investigating the alexithymia construct is advancing rapidly and has broadened considerably in recent years as a result of interdisciplinary efforts, new methodologies, and experimental techniques. New developments in the field include a shift from measurement-based validational studies to experimental investigations, which explore the relation between alexithymia and various aspects of emotional processing; the use of functional brain imaging techniques to explore neural activity associated with alexithymia; and experimental studies that measure multiple indices of physiological response to standardized emotion-inducing stimuli. Developmental research and attachment studies are providing ways for investigating potential etiological sources of the construct; and experimental approaches are being used to explore relations between alexithymia and other health-related personality constructs. In addition, longitudinal and treatment studies are clarifying the relation between alexithymia and psychopathology and the extent to which alexithymia predicts treatment outcome. Investigators need to embrace the new methods and techniques for the field of research to further increase understanding of the alexithymia construct and its association with physical and mental illness.
近年来，由于跨学科合作、新方法和实验技术的应用，关于述情障碍这一概念的研究进展迅速，研究范围也大幅拓宽。该领域的新进展包括：从基于测量的验证性研究转向实验性研究，后者探索述情障碍与情绪加工各个方面之间的关系；运用功能性脑成像技术来探究与述情障碍相关的神经活动；以及开展实验研究，测量对标准化情绪诱发刺激的多种生理反应指标。发展性研究和依恋研究为探究该概念潜在的病因来源提供了途径；实验方法也被用于探索述情障碍与其他健康相关人格概念之间的关系。此外，纵向研究和治疗研究正在阐明述情障碍与精神病理学之间的关系，以及述情障碍预测治疗结果的程度。研究人员需要采用该研究领域的新方法和新技术，以进一步加深对述情障碍这一概念及其与身心疾病关联的理解。
