title: Alexithymia in patients attending a sexual disorders clinic.
abstract: We measured alexithymic traits with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS; Bagby, Taylor, & Parker, 1988) in 170 individuals attending a sexual disorders clinic. We diagnosed 114 of the subjects with a sexual dysfunction and 56 with paraphilic disorders. We determined that 20.2% of the dysfunctional group and 26.8% of the paraphilic were alexithymic when the TAS was measured categorically. When we considered the TAS as a dimensional variable, the subset with paraphilias had significantly higher scores on the TAS only when depressed mood, as measured by the Brief Symptom Inventory (Derogatis, 1993), was covaried. These data suggest that alexithymia in both sexually dysfunctional and paraphilic individuals is related to depressed mood, although the effect is more pronounced in paraphilics.
authors.affiliation: Sexual Behaviors Consultation Unit, Johns Hopkins Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.
authors.forename: Thomas N
authors.initials: TN
authors.lastname: Wise
authors.forename: Cynthia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Osborne
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Strand
authors.forename: Peter J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Fagan
authors.forename: Chester W
authors.initials: CW
authors.lastname: Schmidt
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D015142:Baltimore; D003863:Depression / Q000150:complications / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010262:Paraphilic Disorders; D010555:Personality Inventory; D020018:Sexual Dysfunctions, Psychological / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States