Psychopathology and verbal expression in psychosomatic and psychoneurotic patients

Psychopathology and verbal expression were investigated in 20 psychoneurotic patients and 20 psychosomatic patients (10 patients with ulcerative colitis and 10 patients with Crohn's disease). The Crohn's disease patients showed as much psychopathology as the psychoneurotic patients, but the ulcerative colitis patients showed significantly less psychopathology. However, the Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis patients showed a similar reduction in verbal-emotional expression (alexithymia), when they were compared separately with the psychoneurotic patients. It was concluded that alexithymic characteristics are independent from other forms of psychopathology and may be more important in the pathogenesis of psychosomatic disorder.