A prospective long-term follow-up study of alexithymia in obsessive-compulsive disorder.
BACKGROUND
Studies evaluating the stability of alexithymia over long follow-up periods are rare. We examined the temporal stability of alexithymia in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) over 6 years and the association of alexithymia with the long-term outcome of OCD.


METHODS
Of 42 patients with OCD, 34 (81%) could be reassessed 6 years after inpatient treatment. The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, Yale-Brown Obsessive-Compulsive Scale, and Hamilton Depression Rating Scale were used at pretreatment, posttreatment, and follow-up.


RESULTS
The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale total scores and its factors 1 and 2 decreased significantly during follow-up, whereas factor 3 remained stable. High correlations of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale total scores (r = 0.84, P < .001) and its 3 factors emerged between posttreatment and follow-up, suggesting relative stability over several years. Regression analyses (with and without controlling for depressive symptoms) showed that higher alexithymia scores did not predict a worse long-term outcome of OCD.


CONCLUSIONS
Relative stability over such a very long follow-up period strongly supports the view that alexithymia is a stable psychologic characteristic in patients with OCD. The result that higher alexithymia scores were not associated with poorer long-term outcome of OCD might be explained with the decrease of alexithymia during treatment and follow-up. However, our sample size was small, and further research is clearly required to evaluate the impact of changes in alexithymia and its association with the course of OCD.
Rufer
Michael
M
Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital of Zürich, 8091 Zürich, Switzerland. michael.rufer@usz.ch
Ziegler
Anne
A
Alsleben
Heike
H
Fricke
Susanne
S
Ortmann
Jürgen
J
Brückner
Eva
E
Hand
Iver
I
Peter
Helmut
H
D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009771:Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012044:Regression Analysis