[Alexithymia--psychometric phantom or psychophysiologic reality?]

To study alterations in reactivity to emotionally distressing stimuli in somato-psychosomatic patients 12 patients suffering from ulcer and 24 psychoneurotic patients were compared with 18 healthy controls. All were exposed to cognitive and emotional distress and examined in regard to their electrodermal activity (EDA). Alexithymic features were documented with the TAS in somato-psychosomatic and psychoneurotic patients. In contrast to the neurotic patients the ulcer patients did not differ markedly from the controls in the GT-S and the FPI-R. Concerning EDA no differences were found between ulcer patients and healthy controls under cognitive distress. In any case a significant autonomous arousal was registered. However, only healthy controls and neurotic patients but not the ulcer patients showed a significant increase of EDA as expression of the autonomous activation during presentation of emotion inducing stimuli. The altered psychophysiological reactivity found in somato-psychosomatic patients in contrast to healthy controls was thus ascertainable specifically for the processing of emotional qualified stimuli. The findings are discussed with reference to neurophysiological models and the still disputed conception of alexithymia.