28 MED ARH. 2012; 66(1): 28-32 • ORIgINAL PAPER Alexithymia and Functional gastrointestinal Disorders (FgID) MED ARH. 2012; 66(1): 28-32 ORIGINAL PAPER Alexithymia and Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders (FGID) Mina Mazaheri 1 , Hamid Afshar 1 , Stephan Weinland 2 , Narges Mohammadi 1 , Peyman Adibi 3 Psychosomatic Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran 1 School of Medicine, University of North Carolina (UNC), USA 2 Integrative Functional gastroenterology Research Center, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran 3 I ntroduction: he purpose of this study was to examine alexithymia symptoms, demographic variables and the severity of gastrointestinal symptoms in a sample of patients with functional gastrointestinal dis- orders (FGID) and a comparative sample of healthy controls. Materials and Methods: he sample consisted of 237 individuals, 129 of whom were patients diagnosed with FGIDs. he patients referred to the psychosomatic disorders clinic of Nour Hospital, Isfahan, Iran. he controlled group in- cluded 108 healthy individuals (without digestive diagnosis) matched with the patients by age, gender, marital and educational status. he Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) and the Gastrointestinal Symptoms Rating Scale (GSRS) were used to collect data. Data was analyzed using multivari- ate analysis of variance (MANOVA), correlation coeicients and Fisher’s z. Results: here was a signiicant diference between patients with FGIDs and healthy controls in terms of number of alexithymia symptoms and severity of gastrointestinal symptoms. he results also indicated the existence of a relationship between educational level and alexithymia as well as its dimen- sions (diiculty identifying feelings and diiculty describing feelings) in both groups. However, no signiicant diferences were found between the two groups in this regard. Conclusion: he indings of this study indicated that compared to the healthy control group, patients with FGIDs had higher scores of alexithymia and more severe somatic symptoms. Furthermore, higher educational levels were associated with decreased risk of alexithymia. Such inding might be due to higher ability to describe and identify emotions in patients with higher levels of education. Key words: Alexithymia, Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders, Demographic Variables. Corresponding author: Hamid Afshar. Telephone: +98 913 325 2576. Email: afshar@med.mui.ac.ir 1. INTRODUCTION Alexithymia is defined as a de- creased ability to use language in the expression of emotion (1). Bagby et al. proposed alexithymia to be a multidi- mensional construct with features (di- mensions) including di iculty in de- scribing feelings, di iculty in distin- guishing feelings and bodily sensations, inability to communicate with others, lack of dreams and imaginary life, and focusing on external experiences (2). hese features are thought to show de- iciencies in the cognitive processing and regulation of emotions (3), and may be important risk factors in developing some psychosomatic disorders (4). In recent years, alexithymia has motivated the study of neurobiology of emotion and how it may relate to unex- plained physical symptoms (5). Patients with alexithymia symptoms appear to amplify normal body sensations and interpret somatic signs of emotional arousal poorly (6). Although the alexithymia construct was derived from the classical psycho- somatic disease (1), Taylor et al. be- lieved that alexithymia might appear more frequently with functional so- matic symptoms than with the classi- cal psychosomatic diseases (7). A study by Porcelli et al. indicated that patients with functional gastrointestinal disor- ders (FGIDs) were signi icantly more alexithymic than inlammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients and healthy per- sons. It was reported that 66% of the pa- tients with FGIDs demonstrated alex- ithymic symptoms. FGIDs are the most common gastro- intestinal (GI) problems (9). Although the pathophysiology of FGIDs is not fully understood, evidence has shown that factors including psychological dis- tress and personality disturbances may predicate symptom development (9). Studying patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) has revealed these pa- tients to have greater diiculty in iden- tifying and expressing feelings and also in daydreaming compared to healthy persons (10). Drossman et al. proposed personality traits and emotional states to possibly inluence the physiology of the gut, FGID symptom experience, and the outcome of treatment (9). Kano et al. demonstrated an association between alexithymia and hypersensitivity to vis- ceral stimulation. his inding conirms doi: 10.5455/medarh.2012.66.28-32 Recieved: November 18th 2011 Accepted: January 10th 2012 © Avicena 2012