The incidence of alexithymia in physiotherapy outpatients

Abstract

Alexithymia is a concept within the psychosomatic paradigm used to describe people who have marked difficulties in the verbal expression of their feelings. The alexithymic individual demonstrates inadequacy both in the interpretation of emotional arousal and in finding appropriate vocabulary to describe feelings. Consequently, they express this arousal in physical terms. Alexithymia has been variously shown to be a constant personality ''trait'', perhaps linked to social and familial environments, and a ''state'' phenomenon occurring in response to specific conditions. The concept appears universal to all cultures. Insufficient data exist to determine clearly the prevalence of alexithymia; emerging evidence suggests a prevalence of between 10 and 20% in population samples. In certain clinical populations prevalence is significantly higher. No study has investigated the incidence of alexithymia in the physiotherapy client population. This study used the Toronto alexithymia scale (TAS-20) to assess the presence of alexithymia in a physiotherapy outpatient population (n = 245). The results showed that 27% of the sample were alexithymic and 22% borderline alexithymic. Statistical analysis across gender, age, diagnostic group, and chronicity of condition found no differences between groups at the 95% confidence limit. It is concluded that alexithymic characteristics, such as the augmentation of physical symptoms and somatisation of emotional conflict, are present at high levels in all referral groups. To engage in successful evidence-based rehabilitation, physiotherapists require an understanding of alexithymia and related somatothymias.