Alexithymia and coping with stress in healthy persons: alexithymia as a personality trait is associated with low social support and poor responses to stress.

We examined the relationship between alexithymia and coping with stress among 179 Japanese healthy volunteers. Two correlational analyses indicated that persons scored as alexithymic were more likely to indicate lower social support and poorer responses to stress. Multiple regression analysis also indicated that these lowered coping responses were fully explained by alexithymia scores. These results suggest that alexithymia, as a personality trait, may help to explain these individuals' low social support and poor responses to stress.