[Changes in alexithymia and emotional awareness during psychotherapeutic inpatient treatment]

The aim of the study was to investigate whether alexithymia and emotional awareness could be improved by psychotherapeutic inpatient treatment. The role of alexithymia and emotional awareness in predicting the treatment outcome was investigated. 48 psychosomatically ill patients completed German versions of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS), the Symptom Check List (SCL-90-R), the Global Assessment Scale of Function (GAF) and the "Beeinträchtigungs-Schwere-Score" (BSS) to assess the severity of patient psychological impairment. Psychotherapeutic inpatient treatment was associated with a decrease in alexithymia as measured by TAS-20. The expected improvement of emotional awareness failed to be statistically significant. This may be due to the smaller retest reliability of the LEAS. High scores in emotional awareness before therapy as measured by LEAS emerged as a predictor of successful psychotherapy with respect to GAF.