Laboratory of Psychosomatics and Clinimetrics, Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Psychother Psychosom. 2011;80(6):335-44. doi: 10.1159/000328576. Epub 2011 Aug 5.
Emotional inhibition has been an enduring concept in the psychosomatic literature explaining the onset and course of medical disorders. Currently the personality style of alexithymia is a focus of this dimension in psychosomatic theory, while actual conscious emotional inhibition, which may overlap with alexithymia, has received less attention. In the early 80s Robert Kellner developed the Emotional Inhibition Scale (EIS), a self-rating scale for emotional inhibition based on clinimetric principles. In this study we explored whether the EIS differentiated a sample of cardiac recipients from normal controls, as well as the associations between the EIS and 2 measures of alexithymia, i.e. the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20) and the Diagnostic Criteria for Psychosomatic Research (DCPR). We also examined whether the EIS and the TAS-20 were differently related to depressive symptoms measured by the Symptom Questionnaire (SQ).
Ninety-five heart-transplanted patients and a sample of normal controls, matched for sociodemographic variables, were administered the EIS (total score and 4 subscales concerning 'verbal inhibition', 'timidity', 'disguise of feelings', and 'self-control'), the TAS-20, the SQ, and the Structured Interview according to the DCPR for alexithymia.
Cardiac recipients did not display significant differences compared to normal controls in observer (DCPR) and self-rated (TAS-20) measures of alexithymia. There were, however, significant differences in EIS with regard to 'disguise of feelings'. In both groups the EIS 'verbal inhibition' and 'timidity' subscales were positively associated with the TAS-20, while the EIS 'disguise of feelings' and 'self-control' subscales were independent of alexithymia. Depressive symptoms were more related to TAS-20 than EIS total scores.
Our results suggest that emotional inhibition and alexithymia are distinct phenomena even though they may share certain features. The EIS appears to be relatively independent of depressed mood and will be useful in assessing the individual's conscious management of affect in future psychosomatic research.
情绪抑制一直是身心医学文献中解释医学疾病发病和病程的一个持久概念。目前，躯体感觉理论关注的是人格特质的述情障碍，而实际的有意识的情绪抑制，可能与述情障碍重叠，却受到较少关注。20 世纪 80 年代初，Robert Kellner 开发了情绪抑制量表（EIS），这是一种基于临床测量原则的情绪抑制自评量表。在这项研究中，我们探讨了 EIS 是否能将心脏移植受者样本与正常对照组区分开来，以及 EIS 与两种述情障碍测量方法（多伦多述情障碍量表-20 版（TAS-20）和身心研究诊断标准（DCPR））之间的关联。我们还检查了 EIS 和 TAS-20 与症状问卷（SQ）测量的抑郁症状的相关性是否不同。
对 95 名心脏移植患者和一组匹配社会人口统计学变量的正常对照组进行了 EIS（总分和 4 个亚量表，分别涉及“言语抑制”、“胆怯”、“情感掩饰”和“自我控制”）、TAS-20、SQ 和 DCPR 结构访谈的评估。
与正常对照组相比，心脏移植受者在观察者（DCPR）和自我评定（TAS-20）的述情障碍测量上没有显著差异。然而，在 EIS 的“情感掩饰”方面存在显著差异。在两个组中，EIS 的“言语抑制”和“胆怯”亚量表与 TAS-20 呈正相关，而 EIS 的“情感掩饰”和“自我控制”亚量表与述情障碍无关。抑郁症状与 TAS-20 的相关性高于 EIS 总分。
我们的结果表明，情绪抑制和述情障碍是不同的现象，尽管它们可能具有某些共同特征。EIS 似乎相对独立于抑郁情绪，在未来的身心研究中，它将有助于评估个体对情感的有意识管理。
