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Abstract: The reliability and validity of the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA) have been demonstrated in previous studies with English-speaking community and psychiatric samples and a German-speaking psychiatric sample. The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the TSIA in a mixed clinical and nonclinical sample from Italy. The original English version of the TSIA was translated into Italian and administered, along with the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), to 80 healthy subjects, 69 medical outpatients, and 62 psychiatric outpatients. Eighty-one videotaped interviews were used for assessing the interrater reliability. Confirmatory factor analysis supported the hierarchical, four-factor structure of the TSIA obtained in previous studies, with four lower-order factors nested within two higher-order latent factors. The TSIA also demonstrated internal and interrater reliability, and concurrent validity with the TAS-20. The results support the use of the TSIA to assess alexithymia especially when a multimethod approach to measurement is possible. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate whether preoperative alexithymia might play a role in the persistence of gastrointestinal symptoms after laparoscopic cholecystectomy., Methods: A sample of 52 consecutive patients with gallstone disease and symptoms of dyspepsia were assessed with validated scales for alexithymia (20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale), and psychological (90-item Symptom Checklist) and gastrointestinal (GI) (Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale) symptoms before surgery. GI symptoms were evaluated also one year after surgery. Change from preoperative to postoperative GI symptoms and level of GI symptoms after surgery were used to form groups of improved (n = 31) and unimproved (n = 21) patients., Results: Unimproved patients had significantly higher preoperative alexithymia, psychological distress, and gastrointestinal symptom scores than patients who had improved. Regression analyses showed that alexithymia predicted the persistence of gastrointestinal symptoms more strongly than did psychological distress, even after controlling for preoperative gastrointestinal symptoms., Conclusion: Alexithymia played a substantial and predictive role in the persistence of GI symptoms in gallstone patients after surgery. Treatment planning and outcome of gallstone disease might be improved by preoperative assessment of alexithymia.

Objective: A previous study found a strong association between alexithymia and functional gastrointestinal disorders (FGID). The objective of this study was to investigate whether alexithymia might be a predictor of treatment outcome in patients with FGID., Methods: A group of FGID outpatients classified by the 'Rome I' criteria was divided into improved (N= 68) and unimproved (N= 44) groups on the basis of pre-established criteria after 6 months of treatment. Patients were administered the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale both before and after 6 months of treatment., Results: At the base-line assessment, compared with the improved patients, the unimproved patients had significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression, alexithymia, and gastrointestinal symptoms. Stability of alexithymia was demonstrated by significant correlations between base-line and follow-up TAS-20 scores in the entire sample. Moreover, hierarchical regression analyses showed that the stability of TAS-20 scores over the 6-month treatment period could not be accounted for by their associations with anxiety and depression scores. In logistic regression analyses, base-line alexithymia and depression emerged as significant predictors of treatment outcome. Relative to depression, however, alexithymia was the stronger predictor., Conclusions: Alexithymia is a reliable and stable predictor of treatment outcome in FGID patients. Although further studies are needed, clinicians might improve treatment outcome by identifying patients with high alexithymia, and attempting to improve these patients' skills for coping with emotionally stressful situations.