Independency of alexithymia and somatization. A factor analytic study

In discussions on the several methodological limitations in the assessment of alexithymia, uncertainty still remains about whether alexithymia and somatization are distinct constructs or whether they share overlapping symptomatology and constructs, as suggested by previous studies. In this study, 379 normal adults completed the newly developed 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and a screening list for DSM-III-R somatization disorder. Items from both the TAS-20 and the somatization checklist were subjected to factor analysis, resulting in separate factor loadings according to these two scales. These results were replicated and cross-validated in a sample of 125 psychosomatic inpatients, supporting the view of an independency between alexithymia and somatization.