title: Psychosomatic aspects of patients on hemodialysis. 3. Clinical usefulness of alexithymia.
abstract: The clinical usefulness of alexithymia in dialysis patients was examined from psychosomatic aspects. Before hemodialysis (HD), primary alexithymia was present in 50-53% of HD patients with diabetes. After 2 years' HD therapy, an additional 32-36% of HD patients without diabetes developed secondary alexithymia. In contrast, the prevalence of alexithymia was low in patients receiving continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD), which requires a higher self-control ability than HD. Alexithymia may reflect dialysis patients' ability to take care of themselves and therefore serve as a useful index in (1) selecting the type of dialysis, either HD or CAPD, and (2) identifying patients on dialysis likely to develop somatic complications due to lack of adequate self-control.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Research Institute of Tokyo, Japan.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Fukunishi
mesh_terms: D000203:Activities of Daily Living / Q000523:psychology; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D008950:MMPI; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010531:Peritoneal Dialysis, Continuous Ambulatory / Q000523:psychology*; D011594:Psychometrics; D006435:Renal Dialysis / Q000523:psychology*; D012649:Self Concept; D012803:Sick Role