ALEXITHYMIA IN HEALTHY PEOPLE AND ITS ROLE IN DEVELOPMENT OF DIFFERENT DISORDERS

  • A.M. Skrypnikov Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy, Poltava, Ukraine
  • L.V. Zhyvotovska Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy, Poltava, Ukraine
  • L.O. Herasymenko Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy, Poltava, Ukraine
  • D.I. Boiko Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy, Poltava, Ukraine
  • L.A. Bodnar Ukrainian Medical Stomatological Academy, Poltava, Ukraine
Keywords: alexithymia, affective disorder, treatment of mental disorders, psychosomatic diseases, therapeutic and rehabilitation measures.

Abstract

The reduced ability or difficulty to express verbally, to name one’s own emotional states or feelings of other people, is commonly called alexithymia. Currently, studies are being conducted in which they ascertain whether alexithymia is a specific property of a person or whether it can only predispose to psychosomatic diseases, being their predictor. Some researchers believe that alexithymia itself is not a disease and is a series of characteristics characteristic of certain individuals. Alexithymia is clearly expressed in the personality structure of patients with cardiovascular diseases and represents a separate factor in this structure. In general, studies show that patients with alexithymia are hypersensitive to both internal somatic unpleasant sensations and external pain stimuli, but they cannot describe the differences between different types of pain. Alexithymia can be considered as one of the premorbid personality factors that reduce the compensatory psychological defense capabilities in lucid alcoholism. Alexithymia is found in many drug addicts. Instead of simply getting rid of painful, intolerable, or overwhelming feelings, people who abuse chemicals can use them to control affects, especially when these affects are hard to grasp, distinguish, and give them a name. At the same time, the differences in the manifestations of alexithymia in alcohol and drug addiction, including its influence on the development of addictive behavior, are not well understood. The study of alexithymia is a topical issue of modern psychiatry and narcology, which allows us to apply a personified approach to the patient and to improve modern therapeutic and rehabilitation measures.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

1. Brel, EYu, The study of the relationship between the severity of alexithymia and the level of education in adolescence and adolescence. Psihologiya obucheniya. 2018;5:27-33.
2. Brel, EYu, Stoyanova, IYa. Characteristics of alexithymia in the context of mental health. Bulletin of Kemerovo State University. 2018;1:102-108.
3. Brel, EYu, Stoyanova, IYa. Phenomenon of alexithymia in clinical-psychological studies (literature review). Sibirskiy vestnik psihiatrii i narkologii. 2017;4(97):74–81.
4. Eresko, DB, Isurina, GL, Kaydanovskaya, EV, Karsavarskiy BD. Alexithymia and methods for its determination in borderline psychosomatic disorders. SPb. Psihonevrologicheskiy institut. 1994; 25.
5. Esin, RG, Gorobets, EA, Galiullin, KR, Esin, OR. Alexithymia — baseline trends of research. Zhurnal nevrologii i psihiatrii im. S.S. Korsakova. 2014; 114(12):148-151.
6. Korobitsina, MB. Clinical and psychological aspects of alexithymal psychogenic pain. Nauka y osvyta. 2010;9:74-78.
7. Kristal, H. Disruption of emotional development in addictive behavior. The Psychology and treatment of addictive behavior. M. Nezavisimaya firma «Klass». 2004; 80–118.
8. Moskacheva, MA, Holmogorova, AB, Garanyan, NG. Alexithymia and empathy. Konsultativnaya psihologiya i psihoterapiya. 2014;4:98-114.
9. Plotkin, FB. Alexithymia: general concept, role in the formation and maintenance of addiction, approaches to psychotherapy. Teoriya i praktika psihoterapii. 2015; 9:13:40-53.
10. Polshkova, SG. Alexithymia in workers of dangerous professions as autoaggression predictor. Medichna psihologiya. 2012;2:78-83.
11. Sekoyan, IE. Alexithymia: predictor, sign of psychosomatization or personal characteristics. Nezavisimyiy psihiatricheskiy zhurnal. 2007;4:22-29.
12. Tarhan, AU. Neuropsychological mechanisms of alexithymia and its connection with alcoholic anosognosia. Obozrenie psihiatrii i meditsinskoy psihologii. 2013;1:71-79.
13. Zaytsev, DV, Selivanova, YuV. Psychosocial aspects of the relationship of alexithymia and addiction among youth. Izvestiya Saratovskogo universiteta. Novaya Seriya. Seriya Filosofiya. Psihologiya. Pedagogika. 2017;17:1:62-66.
14. Berthoz, S, Artiges, E, Van De Moortele, PF, Poline, JB, Rouquette, S, Consoli, SM, Martinot, JL. Effect of impaired recognition and expression of emotions on frontocingulate cortices: an fMRI study of men with alexithymia. Am. J. Psychiatry. 2002; 159(6):961–967.
15. Ernst, J, Böker, H, Hättenschwiler, J, Schüpbach, D, Northoff, G, Seifritz, E, Grimm, S. The association of interoceptive awareness and alexithymia with neurotransmitter concentrations in insula and anterior cingulate. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience 2013; 9:6:857-863.
16. Jongen, S, Axmacher, N, Kremers, NAW, Hoffmann, H, Limbrecht-Ecklundt, K, Traue, HC, Kessler, H. An investigation of facial emotion recognition impairments in alexithymia and its neural correlates. Behavioural Brain Research 2014; 271:1:129-139.
17. Kano, M, Fukudo, Sh. The alexithymic brain: the neural pathways linking alexithymia to physical disorders. Biopsychosoc Med. 2013;7(1):1.
18. Messina, A, Beadle, JN, Paradiso, S. Towards a classification of alexithymia: Primary, secondary and organic. J Psychopathol 2014;20:1:38-49.
19. Moriguchi, Y, Decety, J, Ohnishi, T, Maeda, M, Mori, T, Nemoto, K, Matsuda, H, Komaki, G. Empathy and Judging Other's Pain: An fMRI Study of Alexithymia. Cerebral Cortex. 2007;17:2223-2234.
20. Nyklıček, I, Vingerhoets, AJJM. Alexithymia is associated with low tolerance to experimental painful stimulation. Pain 2000;85:3:471-475.
21. Sifneos, PE. The prevalence of "alexithymic" characteristics in psychosomatic patients. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. 1973;22:255-262.
22. Taylor, GJ, Bagby, RM, Parker, JDA. Disorders of affect regulation: Alexithymia in medical and psychiatric illnesses. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1997.
Published
2019-04-12
How to Cite
Skrypnikov, A., Zhyvotovska, L., Herasymenko, L., Boiko, D., & Bodnar, L. (2019). ALEXITHYMIA IN HEALTHY PEOPLE AND ITS ROLE IN DEVELOPMENT OF DIFFERENT DISORDERS. The Medical and Ecological Problems, 23(1-2), 30-33. https://doi.org/10.31718/mep.2019.23.1-2.07