title: Pain experience in Fibromyalgia Syndrome: The role of alexithymia and psychological distress.
abstract: Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain syndrome with a high prevalence of alexithymia, a personality disposition that affects emotional self-awareness. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between alexithymia and pain, differentiating between the sensory and affective components of pain experience, in a sample of FM patients.
  
  
  
  One hundred and fifty-nine FM patients completed a battery of tests assessing pain experience, pain intensity, alexithymia and psychological distress. In order to characterize the clinical profile of alexithymic FM patients, alexithymic and non-alexithymic groups were compared on the different measures. Two regression analyses were performed on the total sample, in order to investigate the relationship between alexithymia and pain, controlling for psychological distress.
  
  
  
  Alexithymic FM patients presented higher scores on all the clinical measures compared to non-alexithymic ones. Positive correlations were found between alexithymia and the affective, but not the sensory, dimension of pain experience variables. Regression analyses showed that alexithymia (difficulty identifying feelings factor) ceased to uniquely predict affective pain, after controlling for psychological distress, particularly anxiety. In addition, none of the alexithymia variables significantly explained pain intensity variance. Finally, a significant effect of anxiety in mediating the relationship between alexithymia and affective pain was found.
  
  
  
  No longitudinal data were included.
  
  
  
  These findings show the presence of higher levels of pain and psychological distress in alexithymic vs. non-alexithymic FM patients, and a relevant association between alexithymia and the affective dimension of pain experience. Specifically, this relationship appears to be significantly mediated by anxiety.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Marialaura
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Tella
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy. Electronic address: ada.ghiggia@unito.it.
authors.forename: Ada
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ghiggia
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tesio
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Annunziata
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Romeo
authors.affiliation: A.O.U. Città della Salute e della Scienza Hospital of Turin, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Colonna
authors.affiliation: A.O.U. Città della Salute e della Scienza Hospital of Turin, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fusaro
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin, Turin, Italy; A.O.U. Città della Salute e della Scienza Hospital of Turin, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Torta
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: Lorys
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Castelli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005356:Fibromyalgia / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*; D010147:Pain Measurement; D058748:Pain Perception; D012044:Regression Analysis; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology*
keywords: Alexithymia; Anxiety; Depression; Emotional distress; Fibromyalgia; Pain