Me ´ moire De ´ pendance physiologique et fonctionnement e ´ motionnel chez les jeunes adultes : affectivite ´ , intensite ´e ´ motionnelle et alexithymie dans la consommation de substances psychoactives Physiological dependence and emotional functioning in young adults: Affectivity, alexithymia and emotional intensity in the consumption of psychoactive substances A. Bonnet *, M. Bejaoui, V. Bre ´ jard, J.-L. Pedinielli UFR psychologie, centre PsyCLE, Aix-Marseille universite ´, 29, avenue Robert-Schuman, 13090 Aix-en-Provence, France Annales Me ´ dico-Psychologiques 169 (2011) 92–97 INFO ARTICLE Historique de l’article : Rec ¸ u le 25 janvier 2010 Accepte ´ le 9 avril 2010 Disponible sur Internet le 16 novembre 2010 Mots cle ´s : Affectivite ´ Alexithymie De ´ pendance physiologique Intensite ´e ´ motionnelle Keywords: Affectivity Alexithymia Emotional intensity Physiological dependence RE ´ SUME ´ L’objectif de cette e ´ tude est de de ´ crire le fonctionnement e ´ motionnel des sujets de ´ pendants aux substances psychoactives. Nous avons recrute ´ 268 sujets e ´ tudiants. Ils ont rempli un protocole permettant d’e ´ valuer leur de ´ pendance physiologique (tabac, alcool, cannabis) et quatre e ´ chelles : d’autoe ´ valuation de la de ´ pression, l’affectivite ´ , l’intensite ´e ´ motionnelle et l’alexithymie. Les re ´ sultats montrent que la de ´ pression constitue un facteur de confusion. Apre ` s contro ˆle de cette variable, ils sont plus re ´ actifs e ´ motionnellement, plus sensibles a ` l’intensite ´e ´ motionnelle et plus alexithymiques que les sujets non de ´ pendants. La proportion de sujets alexithymiques est ainsi de 44,9 % dans ce groupe de sujets, alors qu’elle n’est que de 13,6 % chez les sujets non de ´ pendants. L’activation et l’intensite ´ e ´ motionnelles constituent des variables centrales dans le traitement des e ´ motions par les sujets de ´ pendants, associe ´ es a ` l’alexithymie. Les limites de l’e ´ tude et les ouvertures possibles seront discute ´ es. ß 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. Tous droits re ´ serve ´ s. ABSTRACT Objectives. – The objective of this study is to describe the emotional functioning of individuals addicted to psychoactive substances, and verify that the dependent subjects are more sensitive to emotional dimensions and variables considered as non-dependent subjects. Patients and methods. – We recruited 268 subjects students. They filled out a protocol, first, a questionnaire assessment measuring dependencies (tobacco, alcohol, cannabis), and a second part consisting of four questionnaires: the Hospital Anxiety Depression (HAD) scale (anxiety and depression), the E ´ motionalite ´ Positive et Ne ´gative (EPN-31) (affectivity), the Affect Intensity Measure (AIM) (affect intensity), and the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) (alexithymia). The 268 subjects were divided into: 69 subjects dependent (D) representing 25.7% of the sample, and 199 non-dependent (ND) subjects, representing 74.3%. It consisted of 224 women and 44 men, mean age was 22.23 years (standard deviation [S.D.]: 5.45, range: 18–56 years). There was no significant difference in gender (P > 0.05) between groups or in age (P < 0.05). The scores of anxiety and depression were significantly different between groups. We therefore conducted analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) including the total score of anxiety-depression as a covariate and as dependent variables, scores of emotions, emotional intensity and alexithymia with SPSS 11.5 1 . Results. – The results show that dependent subjects have scores more important to the HAD than non- dependents, depression has been well regarded as a confounding factor. After controlling for this variable, they are more emotionally responsive, more sensitive to the emotional intensity, and alexithymia more than non-dependent. Activation and the emotional intensity appear to be dispositional variables may play a central role in emotional processing in the dependent subjects, associated with alexithymia. They could be located upstream of the processing of emotion, they would * Auteur correspondant. Adresse e-mail : AGNES.BONNET@univ-provence.fr (A. Bonnet). 0003-4487/$ – see front matter ß 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. Tous droits re ´ serve ´s. doi:10.1016/j.amp.2010.04.022