title: Alexithymia and cognitive behaviour therapy outcome for subthreshold depression.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Alexithymia is hypothesized to be a stable trait that hinders favourable outcomes of psychotherapy. We tested two hypotheses: i) alexithymia is not stable but changes along with a change in depressive symptoms and ii) pretreatment alexithymia hinders gaining benefits from psychotherapy.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 201 participants (mean age = 54 years, SD = 4.4) with subthreshold depression were treated with cognitive behaviour therapy. Outcome was defined as the change in depressive symptoms from pretreatment to post-treatment and to 1-year follow-up.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Changes in depressive symptoms were significantly correlated with changes in alexithymia. Baseline alexithymia scores were not correlated with treatment outcome.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Alexithymia is less stable than hypothesized: changes in alexithymia were associated with change in depressive symptoms. Furthermore, alexithymia does not hinder cognitive behaviour therapy outcome.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Psychology, Center of Research on Psychology in Somatic diseases (CoRPS), Tilburg University, Tilburg, the Netherlands. v.r.m.spek@uvt.nl
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Spek
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Nyklícek
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cuijpers
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Pop
mesh_terms: D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology*; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D016896:Treatment Outcome