How Do Self-Assessment of Alexithymia and Sensitivity to Bodily Sensations Relate to Alcohol Consumption?
How Do Self-Assessment of Alexithymia and Sensitivity to Bodily Sensations Relate to Alcohol Consumption?
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DOI：
10.1111/acer.13542
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发表时间：
2018-01-01
影响因子：
3.2
通讯作者：
Critchley, Hugo
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Betka, Sophie;Pfeifer, Gaby;Critchley, Hugo
述情障碍指的是一种情绪体验的异常，通常表现在有成瘾和酒精滥用障碍的个体中。述情障碍患者的特点是难以识别和描述自己的情绪。这种损害与成瘾的形成和维持有关。此外，一种新出现的理论认为述情障碍本身是内感(对身体内部信号的敏感性，包括生理唤醒状态)失败的次要因素。方法本研究检验了述情障碍和功能失调的内感在社交饮酒表达中的假想贡献作用。在正常样本(N=600)中，述情障碍、对身体感觉的主观敏感性和饮酒得分分别使用多伦多述情障碍量表、身体知觉问卷和酒精使用问卷进行量化。采用回归分析和自举中介分析检验述情障碍在躯体感觉敏感性与饮酒之间的关系。中介分析表明，述情障碍，更准确地说，情感识别困难，在身体感觉敏感性和饮酒之间起中介作用，因此在控制述情障碍时，身体感觉敏感性对酒精摄入量的预测作用变得不显著。此外，我们的发现支持这样的理论建议，即述情障碍是包括生理唤醒在内的身体感觉加工受损的表现，这支撑了包括酒精使用障碍在内的适应不良应对策略的发展。我们的观察延伸了越来越多的文献，强调了内感和述情障碍在成瘾中的重要性，这可以为开发新的治疗策略提供信息。
BackgroundAlexithymia describes an abnormality of emotional experience that is commonly expressed among individuals with addiction and alcohol abuse disorders. Alexithymic individuals are characterized by difficulties in identifying and describing their emotions. This impairment is linked to the development and maintenance of addiction. Moreover, an emergent theory suggests alexithymia is itself secondary to a failure of interoception (sensitivity to internal bodily signals, including physiological arousal states).MethodsThis study tested for hypothesized contributory roles of alexithymia and dysfunctional interoception in the expression of social drinking. Alexithymia, subjective sensitivity to bodily sensations, and alcohol consumption scores were quantified using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Body Perception Questionnaire, and the Alcohol Use Questionnaire, respectively, in a normative sample (N=600). Regression and bootstrapping mediation analyses were used to test the hypothesis that alexithymia mediated the association between sensitivity to bodily sensations and alcohol consumption.ResultsAlexithymia was positively correlated with sensitivity to bodily sensations and with alcohol consumption. Mediation analysis revealed that alexithymia, and more precisely, difficulty in identifying feelings, mediated the relationship between sensitivity to bodily sensations and alcohol consumption, such that the predictive effect of sensitivity to bodily sensations on alcohol intake became nonsignificant when controlling for alexithymia.ConclusionsThese results indicate that alexithymia is associated with subjective hypersensitivity to bodily sensations. Moreover, our findings support the theoretical proposal that alexithymia is an expression of impaired processing of bodily sensations including physiological arousal, which underpin the development of maladaptive coping strategies, including alcohol use disorders. Our observations extend a growing literature emphasizing the importance of interoception and alexithymia in addiction, which can inform the development of new therapeutic strategies.