[Disorders of feeding behavior and alexithymia]

The observations that led to the creation of the concept of alexithymia were originally conducted on patients suffering from classic psychosomatic illnesses. However, the latest research has displaced the idea of an exclusive link between alexithymia and psychosomatic illness, due to findings which indicate that subjects with a wide variety of psychiatric disorders can also present alexithymic characteristics. This paper reviews research in the eating disorders field which points to a relationship between psychological deficits and alexithymic traits in anorexia nervosa and bulimia.