Miniati Mario, Marazziti Donatella, Palagini Laura
Department of Clinical and Experimental Medicine, Psychiatric Clinic, University of Pisa, Via Roma 67, 56100, Pisa, Italy.
Department of Neuroscience and Rehabilitation, University of Ferrara, Via Fossato di Mortara 64/A, 44121, Ferrara, Italy.
Clin Neuropsychiatry. 2022 Jun;19(3):137-149. doi: 10.36131/cnfioritieditore20220302.
Alexithymia main features include deficits in empathy, emotion recognition and regulation. Alexithymia has been recently proposed as a potential key to explain the presence of the so-called 'autistic spectrum disorder' signs (ASD), in patients with Anorexia Nervosa (AN). Objective of this review is to summarize current knowledge on the potential role of alexithymia in linking ASD and AN.
A systematic search has been conducted on PUBMED database of the last 10 years, in accordance with PRISMA Guidelines, applying queries in the 'PubMed Advanced Search Builder'.
We initially retrieved 18 papers; the final selection has led to seven papers. According to the available studies, alexithymia is widely represented in samples of AN patients and comorbid ASD traits. However, the specific load of alexithymia in AN with ASD features is still in debate, as well as the potential role of interoceptive deficits. We have found several limitations in the reviewed studies, which shared a cross-sectional design, with no comparison between a pre and a post-treatment condition (except for one study), small samples sizes and some heterogeneity of administered instruments.
the specific load of alexithymia in explaining the link between AN and ASD is still in debate. Interoception deficit has been proposed as having a crucial role. Further research should be devoted to longitudinal studies and not only to cross-sectional observations.
述情障碍的主要特征包括共情、情绪识别和调节方面的缺陷。最近有人提出，述情障碍可能是解释神经性厌食症（AN）患者出现所谓“自闭症谱系障碍”（ASD）体征的关键因素。本综述的目的是总结关于述情障碍在ASD与AN之间潜在联系中所起作用的现有知识。
根据PRISMA指南，在“PubMed高级搜索生成器”中应用查询，对过去10年的PubMed数据库进行了系统检索。
我们最初检索到18篇论文；最终筛选出7篇论文。根据现有研究，述情障碍在AN患者样本和共病ASD特征中广泛存在。然而，述情障碍在具有ASD特征的AN中的具体负荷以及内感受缺陷的潜在作用仍存在争议。我们发现所审查的研究存在几个局限性，这些研究采用横断面设计，除一项研究外，未对治疗前和治疗后的情况进行比较，样本量小，且所使用的工具存在一定异质性。
述情障碍在解释AN与ASD之间联系的具体负荷仍存在争议。内感受缺陷被认为具有关键作用。未来的研究应致力于纵向研究，而不仅仅是横断面观察。
