CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 154Psychosomatic Disorders and Their TreatmentsAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesFibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research

Temporal Stability of Alexithymia Over a Five-Year Period in Outpatients with Major Depression

Saarijärvi, S., Salminen, J.K., Toikka, T.·2006·Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
DOI 10.1159/000090895
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Background: Previous research on alexithymia and depression has led to a controversy over whether alexithymia should be viewed as a state-dependent phenomenon or as a stable personality trait. The aim of this 5-year follow-up study was to examine the temporal stability of alexithymia in outpatients suffering from major depression. Methods: The study population comprised 116 (49 male and 67 female) outpatients with major depression. Alexithymic features were assessed with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the degree of depression with the Beck Depression Inventory. The patients were retested after a period of 5 years. Results: Mean alexithymia and depression scores decreased significantly over the 5-year period. Alexithymia and depression were associated with each other, but the high test-retest correlations in the TAS-20 scores indicate relative stability of alexithymia. The three factors of alexithymia behaved differently. Difficulty in identifying feelings and difficulty in describing feelings were associated with alleviation of depressive symptoms, whereas externally oriented thinking was not. Conclusions: Alexithymia seems to be related with the severity of depression in outpatients with major depression, but it also shows relative stability over 5 years. Our findings support the view that the alexithymia construct represents a stable personality trait, but is also a state-dependent phenomenon.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1159/000090895

Cites

24 of 24 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Alexithymia is generally conceptualised as a stable trait, though the temporal stability of its factors has been seen to differ, with difficulty identifying feelings and difficulty describing feelings increasing during depressive episodes.

    “Alexithymia is generally conceptualised as a stable construct (a trait) [84–86], though the temporal stability of the factors (difficulty identifying feelings, difficulty describing feelings and externally orientated thinking) has been seen to differ, the former two to increase when patients are in depressive episodes [87].”

    From A 'choice', an 'addiction', a way 'out of the lost': Exploring self-injury in autistic people without intellectual disability (2019) · cites this paper as [87]

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Saarijärvi, S., Salminen, J. K., & Toikka, T.
Affiliations
Social Insurance Institution (FI)
Venue
Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics
Publisher
S. Karger AG
Published
2006
Volume
75
Issue
2
Pages
107-112
ISSN
  • 0033-3190 (ISSN-L)
  • 1423-0348
DOI
10.1159/000090895
OpenAlex
W2007582401
Cited by
154
References
24
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 10 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 8 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 9 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 11
FWCI
7.03
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
Locations
  • Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
Kela
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Research
Keywords
alexithymia, major depressive disorder, temporal stability, personality traits, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, test-retest reliability, depression severity, outpatients, long-term follow-up
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Affective Symptoms, Ambulatory Care, Depressive Disorder, Major, Major Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Surveys and Questionnaires, Time Factors, Prevalence, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review