Investigating the difference of alexithymia between addicted and non-addicted women

Abstract

Introduction: Alexithymia is a state of difficulty in emotion regulation. In other words, the inability for cognitive processing of emotional information and regulating emotions is called Alexithymia. It is associated with many mental and physical disorders and personality traits. This study aimed to compare alexithymia between addicted and non-addicted women.

Method:  This cross-sectional study was conducted in the Bojnurd in year of 2013. 39 addicted women and 40 non-addicted women were selected. Data were collected through Toronto alexithymia scale (TAS-20). TAS-20 contains three sub-scales of difficulty identifying feelings (DIF), difficulty describing feelings (DDF) and externally-oriented thinking (EOT). Data were analyzed by multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) using SPSS21 software. The significant level was considered 0.05.

Results: The MANOVA on the three subscales of TAS-20 showed a significant difference between the groups (p <0.001). There was a significant difference between groups in DIF and DDF subscales (respectively p = 0.001 and p <0.001), but the mean of EOT was not significantly different between two groups (p = 0.209).

Conclusion: Addicted and non-addicted women have significant differences in the level of alexithymia. So alexithymia can be associated with female drug situation.