Subjective and autonomic stress responses in alexithymia

  1. Ortiz Soria, Beatriz
  2. Ato García, Manuel
  3. Martínez-Sánchez, Francisco
Revista:
Psicothema

ISSN: 0214-9915

Año de publicación: 2001

Volumen: 13

Número: 1

Páginas: 57-62

Tipo: Artículo

DIALNET GOOGLE SCHOLAR lock_openAcceso abierto editor

Otras publicaciones en: Psicothema

Resumen

Respuestas subjetivas y autonómicas al estrés en la alexitimia. La alexitimia describe una alteración en el procesamiento emocional, manifestada mediante dificultades en la identificación y expresión emocional. Este trabajo examina la relación entre los patrones fisiológicos autónomos y subjetivos de activación en respuesta a una situación de estrés inducido experimentalmente, y el nivel de alexitimia, evaluado mediante la Escala de Alexitimia de Toronto, TAS-20. El experimento consta de seis fases: I-adaptación, II-relajación, III-estrés (aritmético), IV- relajación, V-estrés (visual), y VI-relajación. Durante el procedimiento experimental se registró tanto la percepción subjetiva de activación como la reactividad autónoma, empleando el Índice de Sudoración Palmar. Los resultados muestran diferencias significativas entre la percepción subjetiva de activación fisiológica y afectiva en función del nivel de alexitimia, exclusivamente durante el periodo de adaptación. Asimismo, no aparecen diferencias significativas entre la percepción subjetiva de activación y la reactividad autónoma. Los resultados se discuten en términos de la vinculación de la alexitimia con la activación autonómica

Referencias bibliográficas

  • Bagby, R.M., Parker, J.D. & Taylor, G.J. (1994). The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale-I. Item selection and cross-validation of the factor structure. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 38(1), 23-32.
  • Bagby, R.M., Taylor, G.J. & Atkinson, L. (1988). Alexithymia: a comparative study of three self-report measures. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 32, 107-116.
  • Bagby, R.M., Taylor, G.J. & Parker, J.D. (1994). The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale-II. Convergent, discriminant, and concurrente validity. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 38(1), 33-40.
  • Berenbaum, H. & Prince, J.D. (1994). Alexithymia and the interpretation of emotion-relevant information. Emotion and Cognition, 8(3), 231- 244.
  • Clements, K. & Turpin, G. (1996). Physiological effects of public speaking assessed using a measure of palmar sweating. Journal of Psychophysiology, 10, 283-290.
  • Diggle P.J., Lyang K.Y. & Zeger S.L. (1994). Analysis of Longitudinal Data. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
  • Freedman, L.W., Scerbo, A.S., Dawson, M.E., Raine, A., McClure, W.O. & Venables, P.H. (1994). The relationship of sweat glands count to electrodermal activity. Psychophysiology, 31, 196-200.
  • Hendryx, M.S., Haviland, M.G. & Shaw, D.G. (1991). Dimensions of alexithymia and their relationships to anxiety and depression. Journal of Personality Assessment, 56(2), 227-237.
  • Hendryx, M.S., Haviland, M.G., Shaw, D.G. & Henry, J. (1994). Alexithymia in women and men hospitalized for psychoactive substance dependence. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 35(2), 124-128.
  • Horton, P.C., Gewirtz, H. & Kreutter, K.J. (1989). Alexithymia and solace. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 51(2), 91-95.
  • Hyer, L.A., Woods, M.G. & Boudewyns, C. (1990). Alexithymia among Vietnam veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 51, 243-247.
  • Infrasca, R. (1997). Alexithymia, neurovegetative arousal and neuroticism. An experimental study. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 66, 276- 280.
  • Jessimer, M. & Markham, R. (1997). Alexithymia: a right hemisphere dysfunction specific to recognition of certain facial expressions?. Brain and Cognition, 34, 246-258.
  • Köhler, Th. & Schuschel, I. (1994). Changes in the number of active sweat glands (palmar sweat index, PSI) during a distressing film. Biological Psychology, 37, 133-145.
  • Köhler, Th. & Troester, U. (1991). Changes in the palmar sweat index during mental arithmetic . Biological Psychology, 32, 143-154.
  • Köhler, Th., Weber, D. & Vögele, C. (1990). The behaviour of the PSI (palmar sweat index) during two stressful situations. Journal of Psychophysiology, 4, 281-287.
  • Kohn, P.M. Gurevich, M., Pickering, D.I. & McDonald, E. (1994). Alexithymia, reactivity, and the adverse impact of hassles-based stress. Personality and Individual Differences, 16(6), 805-812.
  • Krystal , J .H., Giller,, E.L. & Cicchetti, D. V. (1986). Assessment of alexithymia in posttraumatic stress disorder and somatic illness : Introduction of a reliable measure. Psychosomatic Medicine, 48, 84-94
  • Linden, W., Lenz, J.W. & Stossel, C. (1996). Alexithymia, defensiveness and cardiovascular reactivity to stress. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 41(6), 575-583.
  • Luminet, O. & Rimé, B. (1998). Assessing the empirical validity of alexithymia: its predictive value for various levels of emotional responding when exposed to an eliciting situation and when re-evoking it verbally. Paper presented at the 10 th conference of the International Society for Research of Emotion, Wuerzburg, Germany, August.
  • Lumley, M.A., Stettner, L.& Wehmer, F. (1996). How are alexithymia and physical illness linked? A review and critique of pathways. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 41(6), 505-518.
  • Lumley, M.A., Tomakowsky, J. & Torosian, T. (1997). The relationship of alexithymia to subjective and biomedical measures of disease. Psychosomatics, 38, 497-502.
  • Martin, J. B. & Pihl, R.O. (1985). The stress-alexithymia hypothesis: theoretical and empirical considerations. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 43, 169-176.
  • Martin, J.B. & Pihl, R.O. (1986a). Influence of alexithymic characteristics on physiological and sbjective stress responses in normal individuals. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics,45, 66-77.
  • Martin, J.B. & Pihl, R.O. (1986b). The relevance of alexithymia for research on stress and stress-related disorders. En Humphrey, J.H. (Ed.) Human Stress, current selected research. Vol. 1 (pp. 99-111). N.Y.: AMS Press, Inc.
  • Martin, J.B. Pihl, R.O. Young, S.N., Ervin, F.R. & Tourjman, S.V. (1986). Prediction of alexithymic characteristics from physiological, personality, and subjective measures. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 45(3), 133-140.
  • Martínez-Sánchez, F. & Marín, J. (1997). Influencia del nivel de alexitimia en el procesamiento de estímulos emocionales en una tarea Stroop. Psicothema, 9(3), 519-527.
  • Martínez-Sánchez, F. (1996). Adaptación española de la Escala de Alexitimia de Toronto (TAS-20). Clínica y Salud, 7(1), 19-32.
  • Martínez-Sánchez, F. (1999). La alexitimia: un factor de riesgo para el padecimiento de los efectos patógenos del estrés. In E.G. FernándezAbascal y F. Palmero (Eds.). Emoción y Salud (pp. 387-401). Barcelona: Ariel.
  • Martínez-Sánchez, F. & Ortiz, B. (2000). La evaluación de la alexitimia. In M. Casullo & Páez, D. (Ed.) Alexitimia y cultura. Buenos Aires: Paidós.
  • Martínez-Sánchez, F., Fernández-Castro, J. & Ortiz, B. (1998). El Índice de Sudoración Palmar: un procedimiento de evaluación de la reactividad autónoma en el estrés inducido experimentalmente. Ansiedad y Estrés, 4(2-3), 227-238.
  • McCulla gh P. & Nelder JA. (1989). Generalized linear models. New York: Chapman and Hall.
  • Näätänen, P., Ryynänen, A. & Keltikangas-Järvinen, L. (1999). The influence of alexithymic characteristics on the self-perception and facial expression of a pshysiological stress state. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 68, 252-262.
  • Näring, G.W.B. & van der Staak, C.P.F. (1995). Perception of heart rate and blood pressure: the role of alexithymia and anxiety. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 63, 193-200.
  • Nemiah, J.C., Sifneos, P.E. & Apfel-Savitz , R. (1977). A comparison of the oxygen consumption of normal and alexithymic subjects in response to affect-provoking thoughts. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 28, 167-171.
  • Newton, T.L. & Contrada, R.J . (1994). Alexithymia and repression: contrasting emotion-focused coping styles. Psychosomatic Medicine, 56, 457-462.
  • Páez, D., Martínez-Sánchez, F. Velasco, C. Mayordomo, S., Fernández, I. & Blanco, A. (1999). Validez psicométrica de la Escala de Alexitimia de Toronto: un estudio transcultural. Boletín de Psicología, 63, 55-76.
  • Pandey, R. & Mandal, M.K. (1996). Eysenckian personality dimensions and alexithymia: examining the overlap terms of perceived autonomic arousal. Personality and Individual Differences, 20(4), 499-504.
  • Papciak, A.S., Feuerstein, M. & Spiegel, J.A. (1985). Stress reactivity in alexithymia: decoupling of physiological and cognitive responses. Journal of Human Stress, 11, 135-142.
  • Parker, J.D., Bagby, R.M., Taylor, G.J., Endler, N.S. & Schmitz, P. (1993). Factorial validity of the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale. European Journal of Personality, 7, 221-232.
  • Parker, J.D., Taylor, G.J. & Bagby, R.M. (1993). Alexithymia and processing of emotional stimuli: an experimental study. New Trends in Experimental and Clinical Psychiatry, IX(1/2), 9-14.
  • Rabavilas, A.D. (1987). Electrodermal activity in low and high alexithymia neurotic patients. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics , 47, 101-104.
  • Roedema, T.M. & Simons, R.F. (1999). Emotion-processing deficit in alexithymia. Psychophysiology, 36, 379-387.
  • Shipko, S. (1982). Alexithymia and somatization. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 37, 193-201.
  • Sifneos, P.E. (1973). Prevalence of «alexithymic» characteristics in psychosomatic patients. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 22, 255-262.
  • Stokes, M.E., Davis, C.S. & Koch, G.G. (1995). Categorical data analysis using the SAS System. Cary, N.C: SAS Institute.
  • Suslow, T. (1998). Alexithymia and automatic affective processing. European Journal of Personality, 12, 433-443.
  • Taylor, G.J. (2000). Recent developments in alexithymia theory and research. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 45(2), 134-142.
  • Taylor, G.J., Bagby, R.M. & Parker, J.D. (1991). The alexithymia construct. A potential paradigm for psychosomatic medicine. Psychosomatics, 32(2), 153-164.
  • Taylor, G.J., Bagby, R.M. & Parker, J.D. (1997). Disorders of affect regulation. Alexithymia in medical and psychiatric illness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Turpin, G. & Clements, K. (1993). Electrodermal activity and psychopathology: the development of the palmar sweat index (PSI) as an applied measure for use in clinical settings. In J.C. Roy, W. Boucsein, D.C. Fowles & J.H. Gruzelier (eds), Progress in electrodermal research.(pp. 49-59). New York and London: Plenum Press.
  • Wehmer, F., Brejnak, C., Lumley, M & Stettner, L. (1995). Alexithymia and physiological reactivity to emotion-provoking visual scenes. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 183(6), 351-357.
  • Zeger SL & Liang KY. (1986). Longitudinal data analysis for discrete and continuous outcomes. Biometrics, 42, 121-130.
  • Zeitlin, S.B., McNally, R.J. & Cassiday, K.L. (1993). Alexithymia in victims of sexual assault: an effect of repeated traumatization?. American Journal of Psychiatry, 150(4), 661-663.
Fuente de los datos: Dialnet