Erhan ERTEKİN, Ahmet KOYUNCU, Banu ERTEKİN ASLANTAŞ, İlker ÖZYILDIRIM

Alexithymia in social anxiety disorder: Is there a specific relationship or is it a feature of comorbid major depression?

Amaç: Aleksitimi majör depresyon ile ilişkisi açısından literatürde geniş bir biçimde araştırılm ıştır. Bununla birlikte anksiyete ile ilgili sorunları olan hastalarda da aleksitimik özellikler sık görülmektedir. Çalışmam ızda anksiyete bozuklukları arasında özgül bir alt grup olan sosyal anksiyete bozukluğu (SAB) hastalarında aleksitiminin varlığı ve onunla ilişkili klinik değişkenlerin değerlendirilmesi hedeflenmiştir. Yöntem: Yaygın tip SAB tanılı 140 hasta Toronto Aleksitimi Ölçeği-20 (TAÖ-20), Liebowitz Sosyal Anksiyete Ölçeği (LSAÖ), Beck Depresyon Ölçeği (BDÖ), Beck Anksiyete Ölçeği (BAÖ) ve İşlevselliğin Genel Değerlendirilmesi (İGD) ile değerlendirildi. TAÖ-20 skoru ≥61 olan katılımcılar aleksitimik olarak değerlendirildi ve ölçek skorları, klinik özellikleri ve eş tanı profilleri aleksitimik olmayan (TAS-20

Sosyal anksiyete bozukluğunda aleksitimi: Özgül bir ilişkimi, yoksa majör depresyon eş tanısının bir özelliğimi?

Objective: Alexithymia has been extensively studied in the literature regarding its relationship with major depreş- sion. However, patients with anxiety related problems also have high alexithymic traits. Our study aimed to assess the presence of alexithymia and clinical variables associated with it in a specific subset of patients with anxiety, namely social anxiety disorder (SAD). Methods: 140 patients with generalized type SAD were assessed by using Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20), Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF). Participants with TAS-20 scores ≥61 were considered as alexithymic and they were compared with non-alexithymic (TAS-20 <61) participants in terms of rating scale scores, clinical characteristics and comorbidity profiles. Results: 46 patients were alexithymic (32.9%) and 94 patients constituted the non-alexithymic group. In comparisons between the two groups, alexithymic group was characterized by a lower mean age at onset of SAD, higher BDI, BAI, LSAS scores and total number of comorbid diagnoses and lower mean current and previous year GAF scores. However, there appears to be a weaker relationship between SAD and alexithymia after controlling for depression. Discussion: Our results suggest that alexithymia is associated with a more severe symptomatology, higher comorbidity and functional impairment in patients with SAD. However, this association may be stronger in patients who have current comorbid major depression than in other patients with SAD.

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