title: A Comparative Study on Alexithymia in Depressive, Somatoform, Anxiety, and Psychotic Disorders among Koreans.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Little is known about the characteristic differences in alexithymic construct in various psychiatric disorders because of a paucity of direct comparisons between psychiatric disorders. Therefore, this study explored disorder-related differences in alexithymic characteristics among Korean patients diagnosed with four major psychiatric disorders (n=388).
  
  
  METHODS
  Alexithymic tendencies, as measured by the Korean version of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20K), of patients classified into four groups according to major psychiatric diagnosis were compared. The groups consisted of patients with depressive disorders (DP; n=125), somatoform disorders (SM; n=78), anxiety disorders (AX; n=117), and psychotic disorders (PS; n=68).
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found that substantial portions of patients in all groups were classified as having alexithymia and no statistical intergroup differences emerged (42.4%, 35.9%, 35.3%, and 33.3% for DP, SM, PS, and AX). However, patients with DP obtained higher scores in factor 2 (difficulties describing feelings) than those with SM or AX, after adjusting for demographic variables.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These findings suggest that alexithymia might be associated with a higher vulnerability to depressive disorders and factor 2 of TAS-20K could be a discriminating feature of depressive disorders.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Kyungpook National University, Daegu, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sung Hwa
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Son
authors.forename: Hyunyoung
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jo
authors.forename: Hyo Deog
authors.initials: HD
authors.lastname: Rim
authors.forename: Ju Hee
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hea Won
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Geum Ye
authors.initials: GY
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Seung Jae
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Lee