Mediating Role of Stress, Anxiety, and Depression in Relation Between Alexithymia, and Functional Dyspepsia

Aim and Background: Functional dyspepsia is a chronic disorder of the upper gastrointestinal tract that anatomical or biochemical abnormalities do not explain it. The purpose of this study was to assess the mediating role of stress, anxiety, and depression in the relationship between Alexithymia and functional dyspepsia. Methods and Materials: This research was a correlational study. 224 male and female patients with functional dyspepsia were selected by available sampling method according to the inclusion criteria. Stress, anxiety, and depression in patients were evaluated by Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (21-item) (DASS-21); Alexithymia was evaluated by Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS); and after primary diagnosis of gastroenterologist, severity of functional dyspepsia was evaluated by Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS). Finally, data analysis was performed using SmartPLS software. Findings: Alexithymia directly affected the severity of functional dyspepsia (effect size: 0.44). Moreover, Alexithymia by mediation of depression (0.20) and anxiety (0.17) affected the severity of dyspepsia at the level of 95% confidence interval (CI). However, because of the insignificance of path coefficient between the variables of stress and functional dyspepsia (T-value < 1.96), the indirect effect of the Alexithymia on the severity of functional dyspepsia with the mediation of stress was not confirmed. The findings of this study indicate the important role of psychological factors (Alexithymia, anxiety, and depression) in functional dyspepsia.