An investigation of alexithymia in alcoholic anonymous members and its relationship with alcoholics anonymous participation

Abstract

Objective To investigate alexithymia of alcoholics who have participated in alcoholics anonymous( AA )for a long time and explore preliminarily the relationship between alexithymia and AA participation. Methods Eighteen subjects who had been in AA group for at least 4 months and 38 alcoholics without taking part in AA (non-AA) group and 38 normal controls were given the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) to measure the alexithymi& Results The TAS-20 total score of non-AA group (56. 9 ± 9. 3 ) was higher than AA group ( 51.1 ± 10. 5 ) and control group ( 51.2 ± 6. 3 ) ( P = 0. 007 ).There was no significant difference between AA group and control group. There was statistically significant difference in TAS-20 factor 1 score among three groups( P =0. 001 ). There were no significant differences in factor2 (P=0.056)and factor 3 scores(P =0.221). Conclusions There is high rate of alexithymia in alcoholics, ones who have participated AA regularly for a long time has lower rate of alexithymia. Key words: Alcohol-related disorders; Self-Help groups; Alexithymia