Alexithymia in autism: cross-sectional and longitudinal associations with social-communication difficulties, anxiety and depression symptoms
| Autor: | Bethany Oakley, Declan G. Murphy, Emily J.H. Jones, Jan K. Buitelaar, Daisy Crawley, Tony Charman, Julian Tillmann, Eva Loth |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male Adolescent media_common.quotation_subject Population Anxiety 03 medical and health sciences Toronto Alexithymia Scale All institutes and research themes of the Radboud University Medical Center 0302 clinical medicine Alexithymia 130 000 Cognitive Neurology & Memory Medicine Humans 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Affective Symptoms Autistic Disorder education Applied Psychology Depression (differential diagnoses) media_common education.field_of_study Neurodevelopmental disorders Donders Center for Medical Neuroscience [Radboudumc 7] medicine.diagnostic_test business.industry Depression Communication 05 social sciences medicine.disease Mental health Psychiatry and Mental health Cross-Sectional Studies Feeling Autism Female medicine.symptom business 030217 neurology & neurosurgery 050104 developmental & child psychology Clinical psychology |
| Zdroj: | Psychological Medicine, 52, 8, pp. 1458-1470 Psychological Medicine, 52, 1458-1470 |
| ISSN: | 1469-8978 0033-2917 |
| Popis: | BackgroundAlexithymia (difficulties in identifying and describing emotion) is a transdiagnostic trait implicated in social–emotional and mental health problems in the general population. Many autistic individuals experience significant social-communication difficulties and elevated anxiety/depression and alexithymia. Nevertheless, the role of alexithymia in explaining individual variability in the quality/severity of social-communication difficulties and/or anxiety and depression symptoms in autism remains poorly understood.MethodsIn total, 337 adolescents and adults (autism N = 179) were assessed for alexithymia on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and for social-communication difficulties, anxiety and depression symptoms. A total of 135 individuals (autism N = 76) were followed up 12–24 months later. We used regression models to establish cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between alexithymia, social-communication difficulties, anxiety and depression symptoms.ResultsAutistic individuals reported significantly higher alexithymia than comparison individuals (p < 0.001, r effect size = 0.48), with 47.3% of autistic females and 21.0% of autistic males meeting cut-off for clinically relevant alexithymia (score ⩾61). Difficulties in describing feelings were particularly associated with current self-reported social-communication difficulties [p < 0.001, β = 0.57, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.44–0.67] and predicted later social-communication difficulties (p = 0.02, β = 0.43, 95% CI 0.07–0.82). Difficulties in identifying feelings were particularly associated with current anxiety symptom severity (p < 0.001, β = 0.54, 95% CI 0.41–0.77) and predicted later anxiety (p = 0.01; β = 0.31, 95% CI 0.08–0.62).ConclusionsOur findings suggest that difficulties in identifying v. describing emotion are associated with differential clinical outcomes in autism. Psychological therapies targeting emotional awareness may improve social-communication and anxiety symptoms in autism, potentially conferring long-term benefits. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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