Alexithymia and facial emotion recognition in patients with eating disorders.
OBJECTIVE
Patients with anorexia or bulimia nervosa are reported to show high levels of alexithymia and to have difficulties recognizing facially displayed emotions. The current study tested whether it could be that facial emotion recognition is a basic skill that is independent from alexithymia.


METHODS
We assessed emotion recognition skills and alexithymia in a group of 79 female inpatients with eating disorders and compared them with a group of 78 healthy female controls. Instruments used were the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Facially Expressed Emotion Labeling (FEEL) test, and the revised Symptom Check List (SCL-90-R).


RESULTS
There were no significant differences between patients and controls in their emotion recognition scores, but patients with eating disorders displayed significantly more alexithymia and psychopathology. Emotion recognition in patients was not related to alexithymia, psychopathology, or clinical symptoms.


CONCLUSIONS
We suggest that the reported alexithymia of patients with eating disorders is complex and independent from basic facial emotion recognition.
University Clinic of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany. henrik.kessler@uniklinik-ulm.de
Henrik
H
Kessler
Markus
M
Schwarze
Suzanne
S
Filipic
Harald C
HC
Traue
Joern
J
von Wietersheim
D000328:Adult; D000339:Affect; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D001068:Feeding and Eating Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015588:Observer Variation; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires