Alexithymia in patients with substance use disorders

Abstract

Introduction

Alexithymia is considered as a deficit in emotion processing. It includes difficulty to identify and describe feelings as well as discriminate between feelings and physical sensations. Alexithymia may be a risk factor for substance use (SUD).

Objectives

The objective of this work is to identify the prevalence and correlates of alexithymia among patients with SUD.

Methods

This study concerns 40 subjects who were hospitalized in a rehabilitation center in Sfax. The subjects completed a form investigating sociodemographic and drug use characteristics. Alexithymia was assessed using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale TAS-20 a. The TAS-20 have three factors: difficulty in identifying feelings (F1), difficulty in describing feelings (F2), and externally oriented thinking (F3).

Results

The mean age of 30.86 ± 8.07 years. The mean score of alexithymia was 65.39 ± 9.65 (42→83). The scores of its dimensions were 25.3 ± 6.10 for F1, 17.16 ± 3.3 for F2 and 23.16 ± 3.18 for F3. The prevalence of alexithymia was 62.8% among addicts. High alexithymic patients did not differ from low or moderate alexithymic patients in terms of, employment, education or the type of substance. TAS-20 was correlated to socio-economic status (P = 0.002). No correlation was observed between age and alexithymia (total TAS-20) when measured as a continuous variable (P = 0.802). High alexithymic patients exhibited a higher preference for poly-substance use compared with no alexithymic patients (P = 0.05).

Conclusion

Findings suggest that alexithymia is frequent in SUD patients. It should be noted in clinical practice that many patients with SUD may have a reduced capacity to identify and describe feelings during detoxification.

Disclosure of interest

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.