Alexithymia and emotion regulation strategies in patients with somatization, anxiety disorders, and normal individuals: A comparative study

Deficiency in emotion regulation is considered as a fundamental problem among people suffering from somatization and anxiety disorders. Difficulty in identifying and describing feelings that is termed alexithymia is the main determinant of affective dysregulation. Pathologies of identifying and describing feelings could influence the way people use cognitive emotion regulation strategies. Can patients with somatization and anxiety disorders be distinguished from normal individuals in terms of the amount of maladaptive emotion regulation strategies they use? To answer this question، the main aim of this study was to compare alexithymia and emotion regulation strategies among patients with somatization، anxiety disorders and normal individuals. A total of 90 participants (30 patients with somatization، 30 patients with anxiety، 30 normal individuals) responed to Cognitive Emotion Regulation Questionnaire (CERQ) and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). The normal group also completed the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21). The results showed that the study groups were significantly different in emotion regulation strategies as well as alexithymia. Adaptive and maladaptive emotion regulation strategies showed significant negative and positive correlations with alexithymia، respectively. Based on the results of the present study، it can be concluded that alexithymia is a kind of deficiency in processing and regulation of emotions that determines the way people use adaptive or maladaptive cognitive emotion regulation strategies.