Alexithymia and fibromyalgia: a systematic review

Fibromyalgia is a chronic musculoskeletal pain syndrome characterized by the presence of painful points on digito-palpation in anatomical specific areas, called trigger points, followed by psychological disorders like sleeping problems and alexithymia. Alexithymia is a dimension defined as the absence of words for emotions. The patient does not know how to process their own emotions and fail to externalize what feels. The investigation of possible relationship between Fibromyalgia and Alexithymia can increase knowledge about the clinical features resulting from both diseases, especially because alexithymia is poorly explored and has a significant impact in patient’s life quality. Objectives: To execute a literature review searching for a clinical association between Alexithymia and Fibromyalgia (FM), highlighting psychiatric and psychological aspects. Methods: Folowing PRISMA statement the research used Scielo, Pubmed, PsychLit and ISIweb of knowledge data base between 2009 and 2014 with the key-words: “alexithymia”, “fibromyalgia”, “psychosomatics”, “chronical pain”, “psycotherapy”, “psychoanalysis”. Results: Nine studies were selected for analysis which used instruments like the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the psychoanalysis and cognitive comportamental therapy showing that the patient with Alexithymia and FM has a worse pain interpretation, deals badly with it and suffer the consequences in their physical and mental health due to that. Conclusion: This study suggested the important impact that alexithymia has in patients with FM, since the psychiatric and psychological factors lead to a bigger decrease in life quality of people who have already worse aspects in that, which warn for the importance of this emotional state, since it is under-diagnosed. Due to the fact that there were a small number of reviewed articles, more research about the relation between FM and Alexithymia must be done.

Un Questionario Italiano per l'Alessitimia in Etŕ Evolutiva: struttura fattoriale e attendibilitŕ

Though better knowledge concerning alexithymia in childhood could improve understanding of its development during the lifespan, it has been scarcely investigated in children. A necessary step in research on alexithymia is to create instruments for assessing the construct. The object of the present study was to develop an Italian Alexithymia Questionnaire for Children based on the instrument proposed by Rieffe et al. (2006) and to examine its factor structure and reliability. The English version of the questionnaire was translated into Italian and it was administered to 576 children recruited from primary and secondary schools (age mean = 10.78, s.d. = 1.67; males 357 and 219 females). Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) revealed preliminary evidence of a four-factor structure, which explained 37.90% of the variance: Factor 1 "Difficulty Describing Feelings", Factor 2 "Difficulty Identifying Feelings", Factor 3 "Confusion on Physical Sensations" and Factor 4 "Externally-Oriented Thinking". As to reliability, the Cronbach alpha indicated adequate internal consistency. Pearson correlations among the total score and the four factors were statistically significant. Moreover, the sample was divided into two groups (children and pre-adolescents) and a ttest was conducted: children showed significantly higher scores than adolescents on the total score of the questionnaire. No significant gender differences in mean total scores were found.Key words: alexithymia, childhood, questionnaire, Italian versionParole chiave: alessitimia, etŕ evolutiva, questionario, versione italiana