Influence of ego strength on associations of alexithymia and depression.

This study examined the association of scores for ego strength with the scores on a measure of alexithymia and with depressive symptoms in two samples of 260 college students and 92 psychiatric outpatients. In both samples, scores on alexithymia were significantly correlated with those for depressive symptoms; however, correlations became nonsignificant when scores for ego strength were controlled for. The results suggest that the association between alexithymia scores and depressive symptoms is decreased by lower scores for ego strength.