Abstract
Although previous cross-sectional studies suggested significantly dysregulated immune response in alexithymia, there is a lack of longitudinal studies. We sought to determine the reliability of the reported relationship between alexithymia and decreased immune response in a longitudinal study. Thirty-eight healthy women who had participated in a cross-sectional study were recontacted 1-year later. Of this sample, 26 were finally included: 13 females who had been found to be alexithymic, and 13 females who were classified as non-alexithymic under the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale during the first phase of the study. A year later, they were still healthy women without any psychiatric disorders, their ages now ranging from 19 to 28 years old. Lymphocyte subset counts (CD4, CD8), in vitro production of interleukin 1β (IL-1β), IL-2, IL-4, and IL-10 by phytohemagglutinin stimulated peripheral blood lymphocytes, as well as serum cortisol levels, were compared between women with and without alexithymia. One-year later, alexithymic women still had significantly lowered in vitro production of IL-2 and IL-4, with lowered IL-2/IL-10 ratio and a reduced percentage of CD4. This is the first ever published study assessing cytokine production during a follow-up of alexithymics. Although our results should be interpreted with caution due the small sample size, they suggest a sustained reduction in both major type 1 and type 2 cytokines while the former seems to be more affected. The potential long-term health impact, if any, is still to be determined.
Highlights
Alexithymia is a clinical description coined by Sifneos [1] in 1972 from the Greek for lack (a), word and emotion to mean “no words for feelings.” It is characterized by a set of cognitive-affective deficits, notably inaccuracy in identifying and describing emotions; difficulty in distinguishing between feelings and bodily sensations of emotional arousal; paucity of fantasies; and an externally oriented cognitive style
There were no differences in the sociodemographic and psychopathological characteristics for the subjects lost to follow-up compared to the 26 subjects who were included both in the cross-sectional study and 1-year later in the longitudinal study
One-year later, there was still no difference between alexithymics (n = 13) and non-alexithymics (n = 13) regarding age (21.08 vs. 21.92; p = 0.42) and none of the subjects were suffering from tobacco addiction according to the Fagerström test
Summary
Alexithymia is a clinical description coined by Sifneos [1] in 1972 from the Greek for lack (a), word (lexis) and emotion (thymos) to mean “no words for feelings.” It is characterized by a set of cognitive-affective deficits, notably inaccuracy in identifying and describing emotions; difficulty in distinguishing between feelings and bodily sensations of emotional arousal; paucity of fantasies; and an externally oriented cognitive style. Alexithymia is a clinical description coined by Sifneos [1] in 1972 from the Greek for lack (a), word (lexis) and emotion (thymos) to mean “no words for feelings.” It is characterized by a set of cognitive-affective deficits, notably inaccuracy in identifying and describing emotions; difficulty in distinguishing between feelings and bodily sensations of emotional arousal; paucity of fantasies; and an externally oriented cognitive style. It was initially associated with so-called psychosomatic disease [2,3,4], alexithymia appears not to be specific to these diseases.
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