Is alexithymia related to psychosomatic disorder and somatizing?

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among alexithymia (as measured by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale--TAS and the scored version of the Archetypal 9 Test--SAT9), the presence or absence of classical psychosomatic disease, and the experience and expression of physical signs and symptoms. Subjects included thirty-two physical signs and symptoms. Subjects included thirty-two in-patients on a psychosomatic medicine unit (somatizing group), thirty-one out-patients who presented to a psychology clinic (psychiatric group), and thirty-four dental patients (comparison group). All subjects completed the TAS, the SAT9, the Hypochondriasis scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI Hs), the Physical Malfunctioning subscale of the MMPI (MMPI Physm), the Somatic Complaints subscale of the MMPI (MMPI Somc), the Hypochondriasis and Denial scales of the Basic Personality Inventory (BPI Hs and BPI Dn), and a demographic questionnaire. Age was significantly correlated with some of the TAS subscales (p < 0.001). There was no significant differences in SAT9 or TAS scores among the three subject groups (SAT9 F(2, 87) = 1.88, p = 0.16; TAS F(2, 92) = 2.91, p = 0.06). MMPI Hs, MMPI Physm, MMPI Somc, BPI Hs could significantly predict TAS (R = 0.46, F(4, 89) = 6.06, p = 0.0002) but not SAT9 scores (R = 0.26, F(5, 84) = 1.54, p = 0.20). Neither TAS (F(2, 92) = 2.13, p = 0.12) or SAT9 (F(2, 87) = 0.095, p = 0.91) scores differed significantly between subjects grouped according to whether they had none, one, or two or more classical psychosomatic disorders.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)