The relationship of alexithymia to subjective and biomedical measures of disease.

Although alexithymia is found in patients with various somatic disorders, it is unclear whether alexithymia is related to organic disease, or just to illness behavior. In 2 studies of patients, the authors related alexithymia (using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 for assessment) to both subjective reports and biomedical measures of disease. In Study I, alexithymia was correlated with symptoms, but not CD4 counts, among adults who had tested positive for the human immunodeficiency virus. In Study 2, alexithymia was associated with the presence or absence of chest pain during exercise testing, but not with ischemic heart disease. These studies suggest that alexithymia, especially difficulty identifying and/or describing feelings, is related to increased illness behavior, but alexithymia may not be related to the presence or severity of organic disease.