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标题：Alexithymia and Somatization in Chronic Pain Patients: A Sequential Mediation Model
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作者：Roberta Lanzara ; Chiara Conti ; Martina Camelio 等
期刊名称：Frontiers in Psychology
电子版ISSN：1664-1078
出版年度：2020
卷号：11
页码：545881-545890
DOI：10.3389/fpsyg.2020.545881
出版社：Frontiers Media
摘要：Objective :To investigate whether chronic pain (CP) patients with somatization reported higher alexithymic traits than those without somatization and to study the different relationships between psychological characteristics, pain, health-related quality of life (HRQL), and somatization. Method :A consecutive sample of 134 CP treatment-seeking outpatients were evaluated for alexithymia (TAS-20), somatization (PHQ-15), distress (HADS), HRQL (SF-12), and pain (BPI). Results :Patients with somatization (37.04%) reported significantly higher TAS-20 total scores ( p < 0.001) and difficulty in identifying feelings (DIF) ( p < 0.001) than those without somatization. The somatizer group had also a significantly higher disease duration, severity and interference of pain, distress, and lower HRQL than the non-somatizer group. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that although distress, pain interference and the mental HRQL component are closely related to somatization ( R 2 = 0.55), DIF was the strongest predictor of severity of somatization (β = 0.31). A sequential indirect effect from DIF to somatization via distress symptoms and pain interference turned out to be significant [95% CI (0.01, 0.09)]. Support was also found for sequential mediation paths from DIF to somatization via distress and mental HRQL [95% CI (0.01, 0.11)]. Conclusions :Our results pointed-out that alexithymia, particularly DIF, may be major factor for somatization risk in CP patients. Longitudinal observations are needed for evaluating the role of alexithymia in clinical outcomes. Copyright © 2020 Lanzara, Conti, Camelio, Cannizzaro, Lalli, Bellomo, Saggini and Porcelli.
关键词：alexithymia;chronic pain;distress;quality of life;somatization