title: Clinical and neural correlates of alexithymia in posttraumatic stress disorder.
abstract: Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often exhibit deficits in emotional experience and expression, which suggests that certain individuals with PTSD may be alexithymic. In this study, in a sample of 105 individuals with PTSD, clinical correlates of alexithymia included reexperiencing, hyperarousal, numbing, dissociative symptoms, and retrospectively reported experiences of childhood emotional neglect. In a subsample of 26 individuals with PTSD related to a motor vehicle accident, functional neural responses to trauma-script imagery were associated with severity of alexithymia, including increased right posterior-insula and ventral posterior-cingulate activation and decreased bilateral ventral anterior-cingulate, ventromedial prefrontal, anterior-insula, and right inferior frontal cortex activation. Clinical and theoretical implications and future research directions are discussed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Paul A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Frewen
authors.forename: Ruth A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Lanius
authors.forename: David J A
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Dozois
authors.forename: Richard W J
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Neufeld
authors.forename: Clare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pain
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Hopper
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Densmore
authors.forename: Todd K
authors.initials: TK
authors.lastname: Stevens
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D001921:Brain / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000503:physiopathology*