Alexithymia in schizophrenia: an exploratory study.
This study assessed a relationship between alexithymia and schizophrenia suggested by reports based on small samples of patients. Here, 50 outpatients with a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia were compared with 50 pair-matched healthy subjects. Alexithymia was measured by the Polish version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20. The mean total score was significantly higher in the schizophrenia group (M = 52.3, SD = 13.47) than in the healthy controls (M = 45.8, SD = 11.39, p < .02). This replicates earlier findings showing that a group of patients with paranoid schizophrenia have higher scores on alexithymia scales than healthy controls. There seems a need for a comprehensive examination of relations between alexithymia and other concepts denoting pathology of affect in schizophrenia.
Cedro
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II Department of Psychiatry, Medical University of Warsaw, ul. Nowowiejska 27, 00-665 Warszawa.
Kokoszka
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Popiel
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Narkiewicz-Jodko
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D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010555:Personality Inventory / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011594:Psychometrics; D012016:Reference Values; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012563:Schizophrenia, Paranoid / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*