Martin J B, Pihl R O
Psychother Psychosom. 1985;43(4):169-76. doi: 10.1159/000287876.
An association has been noted between the presence of alexithymic characteristics and psychosomatic/stress-related illness. A hypothesis is presented here outlining the mechanisms through which stress and alexithymic characteristics contribute to the development of stress-related illness. This hypothesis, the stress-alexithymia hypothesis, is considered here in the context of stress research from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. From these considerations, it appears that the stress-alexithymia hypothesis does have a theoretical basis. Additionally, there is indirect empirical evidence supporting the proposed influence of alexithymic characteristics on the physiological stress response. It is suggested that future research should directly examine the influence of alexithymic characteristics on stress responding and use alexithymic characteristics heuristically to explore the role of affect in the illness process.
述情障碍特征的存在与心身疾病/应激相关疾病之间已被发现存在关联。本文提出了一个假设，概述了应激和述情障碍特征导致应激相关疾病发生的机制。这个假设，即应激-述情障碍假设，将在应激研究的背景下从理论和实证两个角度进行探讨。从这些考量来看，应激-述情障碍假设似乎确实有理论依据。此外，有间接的实证证据支持述情障碍特征对应激生理反应的影响。建议未来的研究应直接考察述情障碍特征对应激反应的影响，并启发式地利用述情障碍特征来探究情感在疾病过程中的作用。
