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Psychometric Testing in Functional GI Disorders
Published in Kevin W. Olden, Handbook of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders, 2020
The TAS, developed by Taylor in 1984 (101), is another self-report measure of alexithymia that canvases all the theoretically positive dimensions of alexithymia. There are good validity and reliability studies on this measure and samples of primary-care patients. The 26-item questionnaire focuses on four components of alexithymia: 1) difficulty identifying feelings and bodily sensations (for example, “I am often puzzled by sensations in my body” or “I have feelings that I can’t quite identify”), 2) externally oriented thinking (“I prefer to analyze problems rather than just describe them”), 3) difficulty expressing feelings (“people tell me to describe my feelings more”), 4) reduced daydreaming (“I daydream rarely”).
The Role of Early Life Trauma in Somatization
Published in Kyle Brauer Boone, Neuropsychological Evaluation of Somatoform and Other Functional Somatic Conditions, 2017
Tara L. Victor, Kathleen M. Van Dyk
Given the relationship between alexithymia and somatization (De Gucht & Heiser, 2003), inclusion of a measure of alexithymia might also be considered, which can help fill in a more complete picture in profiles with high somatization MMPI-2 scores. Recently referred to as “the emotional equivalent of blindsight” or other visual agnosies (Primmer, 2013; cf. Lane et al., 1997), attempts to measure alexithymia have included both self-report, observer-rated, and emotional processing test measures. The most commonly used self-report measure of alexithymia is the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 (TAS-20; Bagby, Parker, & Taylor, 1994; Bagby, Taylor, & Parker, 1994; Parker, Taylor, & Bagby, 2003; Taylor & Bagby, 1998; Taylor, Bagby, & Parker, 2003). The TAS-20 provides a total score, as well as scores on three subscales, including: (1) Difficulty Identifying Feelings (7 items; e.g., “I am often confused about what emotion I am feeling”); (2) Difficulty Describing Feelings (5 items; e.g., “I find it hard to describe how I feel about people”); and (3) Externally Oriented Thinking (8 items; e.g., “I prefer to just let things happen rather than to understand why they turned out that way”). Each item is rated on a 5-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating higher levels of alexithymia. As reviewed by Lumley and colleagues (2005), “This measure has been widely validated but—like other self-report scales—has been criticized for its overlap with negative affect and possible failure to capture the high end of alexithymia” (p. 330).
What Changes? What Does It Mean?
Published in John R. Cutcliffe, José Carlos Santos, Paul S. Links, Juveria Zaheer, Henry G. Harder, Frank Campbell, Rod McCormick, Kari Harder, Yvonne Bergmans, Rahel Eynan, Routledge International Handbook of Clinical Suicide Research, 2013
The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) is a self-report questionnaire containing items that are rated on a 5-point Likert-type rating scale from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) with five items inversely scored. It is hand scored with a maximum score of 100. It uses cutoff scoring: ≤51 = non-alexithymic, scores of 52 to 60 = moderately alexithymic, and scores ≥61 = highly alexithymic. The TAS-20 was chosen because it has three subscales, a three-factors structure that is theoretically consistent with the alexithymia construct and captures concepts relevant to identified deficits in emotional awareness: (1) difficulties identifying feelings; (2) difficulties describing feelings; and (3) externalization of emotion. The TAS-20 has been used in a variety of populations, including psychiatric outpatients, and previous evidence supports the convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity of the TAS-20 (Taylor, Bagby, Ryan et al., 1990; Bagby, Parker, & Taylor, 1994). The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) is a self-report questionnaire consisting of 21 items each with four possible responses that assesses different aspects of depressive symptomatology (Beck, Ward, Mendelsohn et al., 1961). Each response is assigned a score ranging from zero to three, indicating the severity of the symptom. The maximum possible score is 63. A score of <15 = Mild Depression, a score 15–30 = Moderate Depression, and a score >30 = Severe Depression. The BDI has demonstrated excellent psychometric characteristics, with a split-half reliability of 0.93, and excellent convergent and predictive validity, e.g., significantly predicting suicide ideation and eventual suicide (Beck, Ward, Mendelsohn et al., 1961; Beck, Steer, Kovacs et al., 1985).
Revisiting alexithymia as an important construct in the treatment of anorexia nervosa: a proposal for future research
Published in Eating Disorders, 2022
Vinushini Arunagiri, Erin E. Reilly
Over the past decade, alexithymia has been proposed as a prominent clinical feature of EDs and is often included within larger socioaffective theories of AN (Brewer et al., 2015; Eizaguirre et al., 2004; Treasure & Schmidt, 2013). Within these models, symptoms of AN, such as starvation, are thought to be attempts to regulate distressed and undifferentiated emotional states (Eizaguirre et al., 2004; Treasure & Schmidt, 2013). Regarding existing data in this domain, recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses suggest large mean differences in self-reported alexithymia between individuals with AN and healthy controls, with the most consistent findings for the Difficulties Identifying Feelings and Difficulties Describing Feelings subscales of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (Nowakowski et al., 2013; Westwood et al., 2017). Studies reporting “clinical cutoff” scores for the TAS generally suggest that over 50% of individuals in clinical samples endorse significant alexithymia (Nowakowski et al., 2013). Further, related research has indicated impairments on other facets of emotion processing and regulation that relate to alexithymia, including reduced facial expressiveness (Bora & Köse, 2016; Brockmeyer et al., 2016), facial emotion expressivity, emotion recognition, and self-report measurements of non-acceptance of emotions (Davies et al., 2012; Harrison et al., 2010; Krug et al., 2008). Altogether, existing data suggest that mean levels of alexithymia are elevated in AN compared to controls, but this data remains primarily descriptive in nature and cross-sectional (Nowakowski et al., 2013; Westwood et al., 2017).
The Emotion Regulation Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties in General Community Samples
Published in Journal of Personality Assessment, 2020
David A. Preece, Rodrigo Becerra, Ken Robinson, James J. Gross
Toronto Alexithymia Scale–20.The TAS–20 (Bagby et al., 1994) is a 20-item self-report measure of alexithymia. It is designed to assess the three components of alexithymia: difficulty identifying one’s own feelings (DIF; seven items), difficulty describing feelings (DDF; five items), and an externally orientated thinking style (EOT; eight items) whereby one rarely pays attention to his or her emotions. Subscale scores can be derived for each component, and all items can be summed into a total scale score as an overall marker of alexithymia. Items are answered on a 5-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating higher levels of alexithymia (i.e., more emotion processing difficulties). Most aspects of the TAS–20 have demonstrated good validity and reliability, although the EOT subscale score usually has low reliability (Cronbach’s α < .70; e.g., Preece, Becerra, Robinson, and Dandy, 2017) and this was found in our data set.
Alexithymia, suicide ideation, affective temperaments and homocysteine levels in drug naïve patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: an exploratory study in the everyday ‘real world’ clinical practice
Published in International Journal of Psychiatry in Clinical Practice, 2020
Domenico De Berardis, Federica Vellante, Michele Fornaro, Annalisa Anastasia, Luigi Olivieri, Gabriella Rapini, Nicola Serroni, Laura Orsolini, Alessandro Valchera, Alessandro Carano, Carmine Tomasetti, Paola Annunziata Varasano, Gabriella Lucidi Pressanti, Massimiliano Bustini, Maurizio Pompili, Gianluca Serafini, Giampaolo Perna, Giovanni Martinotti, Massimo Di Giannantonio
Alexithymia was evaluated using the Italian version (Bressi et al. 1996) of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20); a TAS-20 score of ≥61 was considered indicative of alexithymia (Carano et al. 2012; De Berardis et al. 2013). The TAS–20 consists of three subscales: Difficulty in Identifying Feelings (DIF), Difficulty in Describing Feelings (DDF), and Externally-Oriented Thinking (EOT). The Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS), was used to obtain a general measure of trauma intensity (Davidson et al. 2002). Temperament was assessed with the TEMPS-A, a self-assessed temperament 110-item scale with depressive (DEP), cyclothymic (CYC), hyperthymic (HYP), irritable (IRR) and anxious (ANX) subscales (Akiskal et al. 2005; Solmi et al. 2016). The Scale of Suicide Ideation (SSI) was used to assess suicide ideation (Beck et al. 1979).