title: Comparison of 26-item and 20-item versions of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale for psychiatric outpatients.
abstract: This study compared the 20-item revised Toronto Alexithymia Scale with the 26-item version for 257 psychiatric outpatients. Scores on the 20-item version significantly correlated with those on the 26-item inventory even when controlled for depressed mood. Furthermore, the 20-item scale showed greater internal consistency. Factor analysis for both versions indicated three subfactors but the factors in the TAS-20 accounted for greater common variance (92%) than for the factors in the TAS-26 (78%). The total variance accounted for by these factors on the TAS-20 (45%) was also greater than for the TAS-26 (38%).
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Inova Fairfax Hospital, Falls Church, VA 22042-3300, USA.
authors.forename: T N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Wise
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Simpson
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Sheridan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results