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Query: UMLS:C0011570 (depression)
 172,036 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Self-report alexithymia, depression, and anxiety inventories were completed by 204 (84 women and 120 men) psychoactive substance-dependent patients during their first week of hospitalization. Eighty-five of the 204 patients (41.7%) scored in the alexithymic range on the revised Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). Women's average alexithymia, depression (Beck Depression Inventory [BDI]), and anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory-State [STAI-S]) scores were higher than men's average scores. Ethnic (Hispanic whites v non-Hispanic whites) and diagnostic (alcohol v drug v mixed-substance dependence) group differences were not significant. To examine the interrelationships among alexithymia, depression, and anxiety, a causal model confirmed in medical students was tested. The model was reconfirmed; state anxiety predicted depression and alexithymia, and depression predicted alexithymia. These findings are consistent with previous research and compatible with the view that a state of alexithymia can result from severe anxiety and depression.
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PMID:Alexithymia in women and men hospitalized for psychoactive substance dependence. 818 75

One hundred seventy four inpatients of a psychosomatic hospital were examined with the revised version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale TAS-R, as well as further measures of emotionality, somatization, psychopathology and personality. A significant association was found between TAS alexithymia and the number of somatoform symptoms. This association, however, disappeared when it was corrected for the possible impact of depression. The factor 1 of the TAS (ability to describe feelings to others) correlated significantly with the use of negative emotional words. Thus TAS alexithymics do not use less, but more emotional words, especially words describing negative feelings. The validity of factor 2 (externally oriented thinking) seems to be low. TAS alexithymia may measure specific aspects of depression or general distress.
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PMID:What does the Toronto Alexithymia Scale TAS-R measure? 884 78

This article attempts to further our understanding of alexithymia by testing two conceptual questions about the construct: (a) Is alexithymia characterized by reduced autonomic activity? and (b) Can it be clearly distinguished from defensiveness? Eighty healthy university students completed a battery of personality scales including the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, measures of self-deception and impression management, depression, and anger-in. They also participated in three lab stress tasks: isometric handgrip; mental arithmetic; and a negative affect provocation task. Blood pressure and heart rate were monitored throughout the lab procedure. Analyses were conducted with tercile groups of low, medium, and high alexithymia scorers. The "high alexithymia" tercile showed smaller heart rate responses to the stress tasks and more anger-in behavior. Blood pressure responses did not differentiate the low/ medium/high alexithymia subgroups. Alexithymia scores were unrelated to defensiveness, that is, there was no relationship between alexithymia and impression management or self-deception, and alexithymia was unrelated to depression. We conclude that students defined as "high alexithymia" on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale are not self-deceptive nor do they try to leave a particular impression; they tend to be somewhat hypoaroused autonomically, and they report as many psychological distress symptoms as do subjects with lower TAS scores.
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PMID:Alexithymia, defensiveness and cardiovascular reactivity to stress. 903 21

A controlled study was undertaken to assess alexithymia and somatic amplification among 50 medical outpatients with chronic pain referred for psychiatric consultation. Data were collected on demographics; DSM-IV diagnoses; and measures of anxiety, depression, and alexithymia, assessed with the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), as well as somatic amplification, assessed with the Somatosensory Amplification Scale (SAS). Data analysis revealed low scores on the TAS-20 and SAS for the pain patients, compared with a control group without pain. In this sample, depression and anxiety were the primary determinants of alexithymia and somatic amplification, rather than pain. These findings suggest that psychological markers for chronic pain may be different from those for other somatoform disorders.
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PMID:Alexithymia and somatic amplification in chronic pain. 977 96

Two hundred thirty-seven newly diagnosed yet untreated hypertensive men and women, 35 to 54 years of age, were compared with an age- and gender-stratified random population sample of 146 normotensive men and women to find out whether psychological distress symptoms, anger expression, and alexithymia are associated with elevated blood pressure and whether the possible associations are independent of sodium and alcohol intake, body mass index, and physical fitness. The independent attributes of mean arterial pressure were studied by multivariate regression analyses after combining the subjects in the hypertensive and control groups. Three questionnaires were used: the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-37), a 31-item version of the Spielberger State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory (STAXI), and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-26). Total scores of the TAS-26 were higher (P<0.001) in hypertensive men and women than in their normotensive control subjects (75.6+/-7.8 vs 64.1+/-9.8 in men and 72.9+/-7.1 vs 57.5+/-11.5 in women). There were no differences between the study and control groups in psychological distress symptoms, including anxiety, depression, and hostility, or in anger expression. In multivariate regression analyses, higher age, male gender, higher sodium intake, lower physical fitness, and alexithymia were independently and highly significantly (P<0.01 for male gender, P<0.0001 for other variables) associated with increased blood pressure, explaining altogether 39.5% of the cross-sectional variation in mean arterial pressure. We conclude that alexithymia, that is, poor ability to experience and express emotions, is associated with elevated blood pressure independent of sodium and alcohol intake, body mass index, and physical fitness.
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PMID:Alexithymia: a facet of essential hypertension. 1020 48

Few psychological assessment instruments exist for Jamaicans. Studies that address the appropriateness of foreign instruments for Jamaicans are sparse and empirical focus on psychopathology and its aetiology in Jamaican adults is virtually nonexistent. The present study addressed these deficits via Confirmatory Factor Analyses (CFA) which revealed that factors on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) were not replicated for a Jamaican sample (N = 352). Exploratory Factor Analyses (EFA) on the TAS-20 revealed one factor labelled Unawareness and Confusion Regarding Emotions (UCRE). Also, EFA yielded six BSI dimensions labelled Somatic Complaints, Paranoia, Hostility, Mild Depression/Dysthymia, Major Depression with Psychotic Features, and Agoraphobia with Panic. Regression analyses on the Jamaican-based TAS-20 and BSI factors revealed a positive relationship between UCRE and each BSI factor and total BSI score. Mild Depression, Agoraphobia with Panic, Paranoia, Hostility, Mild Depression and Major Depression were higher for women and younger Jamaicans, respectively, but younger Jamaicans with higher UCRE scores had higher scores on Paranoia, Major Depression, and total score. The findings suggest that Jamaican mental health policy and programmes should focus on the difficulties some Jamaicans experience in recognising and expressing their emotions.
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PMID:Emotions and psychopathology. 1063 40

Displacement activities (i.e., self-directed behaviors such as self-touching, scratching, and self-grooming) are a reliable ethological indicator of increased emotional and physiological arousal throughout the phylogenetic scale. We hypothesized that, in alexithymic individuals, the failure to regulate cognitively distressing emotions might result in increased displacement behavior. The nonverbal behavior of 30 patients with depressive or anxiety disorders was video-recorded during psychiatric interviews and analyzed using an ethological scoring system. Before being interviewed, each patient completed the Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and the state form of the State-Trait Anxiety Index (STAI-S). Ethological data confirmed the hypothesis of the study. The patients with more pronounced alexithymic features showed a significantly higher frequency of displacement activities during interviews. At the same time, these patients reported levels of self-rated anxiety and depression equivalent to those reported by nonalexithymic patients. Such a dissociation between cognitive appraisal of emotion and nonverbal behavior reflecting increased emotional arousal supports the view that alexithymia implies a failure to elevate emotions from a preconceptual level of organization to the conceptual level of mental representations.
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PMID:Affect regulation in alexithymia: an ethological study of displacement behavior during psychiatric interviews. 1066 55

The relation between alexithymia and both the domain and the facet level of the five-factor model (FFM) of personality was examined in a sample of 101 university students by using the Twenty-Item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20; Bagby, Taylor, & Parker, 1994) and the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (Costa & McCrae, 1992c). Consistent with the alexithymia construct, the TAS-20 was positively correlated with Neuroticism (N) and negatively correlated with Extraversion (E) and Openness (O), whereas no significant relations were found with Agreeableness (A) and Conscientiousness (C). Analysis of the lower order traits (i.e., facets) of the FFM revealed that depression for N; positive emotions and assertiveness for E; feelings and actions for O; altruism, tender-mindedness, and modesty for A; and competence for C predicted alexithymia. These results support the uniqueness of the alexithymia construct, which is represented by a cluster of traits across the dimensions and facets of the FFM.
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PMID:Relation between alexithymia and the five-factor model of personality: a facet-level analysis. 1068 48

We compared alexithymia and depression ratings for non-hospitalized women meeting DSM-IV criteria for anorexia nervosa (n=32) and bulimia nervosa (n=32) to ratings for healthy women (n=74). Alexithymia was evaluated by the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and depression by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HAD). TAS and HAD scores were significantly higher in anorexic compared to bulimic patients, although these two scales were significantly and positively correlated (r=0.53, P=0.001). After taking depression into account as a confounding variable, rates of alexithymia did not vary according to the type of eating disorder (anorexia or bulimia).
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PMID:Alexithymia and depression in eating disorders. 1076 Mar 85

The complete nucleotide sequence of the mitochondrial genome of the Oriental white stork, Ciconia boyciana, has been determined from captive storks by a novel method incorporating Long PCR and shotgun sequencing. 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes and 22 transfer RNA genes were identified as in other vertebrate mitochondrial genomes. The position and direction of the NADH6 and tRNA-Glu genes were the same as previously reported for avian mitochondrial genomes. A 71 bp direct repeat and long CAAA repeat sequences were found at the 3' end of the D-loop region, together with SCB-1, SCB-2, SCB-3, and three TAS sequences. Direct sequencing of the PCR fragments in the D-loop region in 26 captive Oriental white storks originating from Japan, China, and Russia revealed nucleotide differences at 18 sites along 1,248 bp, and a total of nine haplotypes have been identified. It was found that one pair of individuals in the Japanese captive breeding program were of the same haplotype, suggesting that they were caught from the same nest. The pair has since been dissolved in consideration of the possibility of inbreeding depression.
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PMID:Determination of the complete nucleotide sequence and haplotypes in the D-loop region of the mitochondrial genome in the oriental white stork, Ciconia boyciana. 1084 18


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