[Alexithymia and verbal intelligence: a psychometric study].
BACKGROUND
Alexithymia is a concept that describes the unability to put emotions into words ant that has been associated with somatization and psychosomatic disorders.


METHODS
A sample of 124 outpatients attending the Psychosomatic Unit of a General Hospital was studied in order to test the hypothesis that alexithymic patients have a significantly lower verbal intelligence than nonalexithymics. Alexithymia was assessed by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), and verbal, nonverbal and general intelligence were measured by the WAIS.


RESULTS
TAS scores were not related to medical and psychiatric diagnoses, and alexithymic patients (n: 53) showed not only significantly lower scores in verbal intelligence than undifferentiated subjects (n: 37) and nonalexithymics (n: 34) but also significantly lower scores in nonverbal and general intelligence.


CONCLUSIONS
The results do not confirm our hypothesis and are discussed in relation to theories that consider alexithymia as a consequence of cerebral asymmetry and interhemispheric dysfunctions.
Váldes
M
M
Instituto Clínic de Psiquiatría y Psicología. Hospital Clinic. Institut d'Investigacions Biomediques August Pi i Sunyer (IDIBAPS), Universidad de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. mvales@clinic.ub.es
Jódar
I
I
Ojuel
J
J
Sureda
B
B
D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007361:Intelligence Tests; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D011594:Psychometrics
Alexitimia e inteligencia verbal: un estudio psicométrico.