Lumley M A, Tomakowsky J, Torosian T
Department of Psychology, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48202, USA.
Psychosomatics. 1997 Sep-Oct;38(5):497-502. doi: 10.1016/S0033-3182(97)71427-0.
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.
尽管述情障碍见于患有各种躯体疾病的患者，但目前尚不清楚述情障碍是与器质性疾病有关，还是仅与患病行为有关。在两项针对患者的研究中，作者将述情障碍（使用多伦多述情障碍量表20进行评估）与疾病的主观报告和生物医学指标相关联。在研究I中，在人类免疫缺陷病毒检测呈阳性的成年人中，述情障碍与症状相关，但与CD4细胞计数无关。在研究2中，述情障碍与运动试验期间是否存在胸痛有关，但与缺血性心脏病无关。这些研究表明，述情障碍，尤其是在识别和/或描述情感方面的困难，与患病行为增加有关，但述情障碍可能与器质性疾病的存在或严重程度无关。
