The relationship between alexithymia and symptom dimensions in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder

The aims of this study were to evaluate alexithymia subscales [i.e. difficulty in identifying feelings (DIF), difficulty in describing feelings (DDF) and externally-oriented thinking (EOT)] in patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and to clarify the relationships of alexithymia subscales to obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptom dimensions and other clinical variables. One hundred fifteen OCD outpatients and two control groups including 80 normal controls and 100 alcoholic patients participated in this study. The data were collected by the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (Y-BOCS), the Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory-Revised (OCI-R), the Farsi version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (FTAS-20) and the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS-21). 60.7% of OCD patients and 48% of alcoholics were classified as alexithymics. Those with OCD revealed significantly higher scores on alexithymia and its subscales than alcoholics and normal controls. OCD patients with alexithymia showed higher means in Y-BOCS and its subscales as well as the OC dimensions of mental neutralizing and obsessing than non-alexithymics. DIF and EOT were significantly correlated with obsessing and mental neutralizing respectively. DDF and EOT were related to OCD severity. It was concluded that DIF and EOT may be specific to obsessing and mental neutralizing in OCD patients.