Kang Sunyoung, Park Chun Il, Kim Se Joo, Kang Jee In
Institute of Behavioral Science in Medicine, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, 03722, South Korea.
Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Yonsei-ro 50-1, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, 03722, South Korea.
BMC Psychol. 2025 Jul 18;13(1):804. doi: 10.1186/s40359-025-03087-z.
Deficits in emotional awareness may contribute to the development and maintenance of somatic symptoms. This study explored emotional awareness deficits and their association with somatic symptoms among individuals with a high somatic symptom burden from an online community sample, as well as among patients with somatic symptom disorders.
Emotional awareness deficits were analyzed by comparing 77 individuals with a high somatic symptom burden and 129 individuals with a low somatic symptom burden from a community population (Study 1). The severity of somatic symptom burden was measured using the Somatic Symptom Scale-8, with scores of eight or higher classified as high. Deficits in emotional awareness in clinical somatic symptoms were examined by comparing 34 patients with somatic symptom disorders to 34 matched healthy controls (Study 2). Emotional awareness was assessed by evaluating alexithymia using the 20-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and empathy using the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI). Multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) was conducted to examine group differences in emotional awareness while controlling for potential covariates.
After adjusting for covariates, the MANCOVA results in Study 1 revealed significantly higher scores on the Difficulty Identifying Feelings subscale of the TAS-20 and the Personal Distress subscale of the IRI among participants with a high somatic symptom burden. These findings were replicated in Study 2, where patients with somatic symptom disorders exhibited deficits comparable to those of healthy controls.
This study suggests that difficulties in emotional awareness are closely associated with somatic symptoms in both clinical and community populations. Interventions aimed at improving emotional awareness may alleviate the manifestations of somatic symptoms and prevent related functional impairments.
Not applicable.
情绪觉察缺陷可能导致躯体症状的产生和维持。本研究从一个在线社区样本以及躯体症状障碍患者中，探讨了具有高躯体症状负担个体的情绪觉察缺陷及其与躯体症状的关联。
通过比较社区人群中77名高躯体症状负担个体和129名低躯体症状负担个体，分析情绪觉察缺陷（研究1）。使用躯体症状量表-8测量躯体症状负担的严重程度，得分8分及以上被归类为高。通过比较34名躯体症状障碍患者和34名匹配的健康对照，检查临床躯体症状中的情绪觉察缺陷（研究2）。使用20项多伦多述情障碍量表（TAS-20）评估述情障碍，使用人际反应指数（IRI）评估共情，以此来评估情绪觉察。进行多变量协方差分析（MANCOVA），以在控制潜在协变量的同时检查情绪觉察的组间差异。
在调整协变量后，研究1中的MANCOVA结果显示，高躯体症状负担参与者在TAS-20的识别感受困难子量表和IRI的个人痛苦子量表上的得分显著更高。这些发现在研究2中得到了重复，在该研究中，躯体症状障碍患者表现出与健康对照相当的缺陷。
本研究表明，情绪觉察困难在临床和社区人群中均与躯体症状密切相关。旨在提高情绪觉察的干预措施可能会减轻躯体症状的表现并预防相关功能损害。
不适用。
