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The article presents the results of research connected with the implementation of pain, anxiety and depression scales and questionnaires in patients with low and high levels of alexithymia (AT). Patients with high level of alexithymia experience difficulties working with psychometric instruments, which are used in the process of diagnosis in diseases associated with pain syndromes, anxiety disorders and dizziness. So, the comparative research of questionnaires and scales informativity for non-alexithymic and alexithymic patients is really urgent. The research was conducted at the laboratory "Clinical linguistics" (Kazan Federal University) from 2016 till 2018 and included two groups: 60 neurological patients with high level of AT (experimental group) and 60 neurological patients with low level of AT (control group). The level of AT was measured with the help of Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS - validated Russian version). The sample was presented by Russian-speaking patients. Patients were tested by TAS to define the level of alexithymia, then they were offered psychometric instruments for the measurement of pain (Pain Rating Scales; Brief Pain Inventory; McGill Pain Questionnaire) and psychometric instruments for the measurement of anxiety and depression (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale; Beck Depression Inventory) with different structure. The aim was to estimate the level of clarity of the questions and descriptors from scales and questionnaires. The form of testing was written and oral simultaneously. The authors give the comparative analysis of above mentioned instruments implementation in both groups and suggest their recommendations for specialists who use these scales and questionnaires in patients with AT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The metalinguistic project launched at Kazan Federal University is aimed at solving the actual problem of complex informatization of Russian linguistics in general and Russian lexicography in particular, as well as at creation of optimal conditions for the elaboration of various types of language references (dictionaries). The most perspective and effective direction of information support for linguistics is the creation of comprehensive corpora which provide the possibility to accumulate, optimally structure, replenish, and promptly give the user a variety of information. Electronic references function not only as a result of scientific research accumulating the information received, not only as a source of materials for further research, but also as a data processing tool, a tool for scientific research. At present, it is extremely important to create vocabulary databases along with text corps. The sources of our lexicographic complex being developed are more than sixty volumes of various dictionaries (more than 51,500 pages) which belong to the main lexicographic database of the Russian language. As the analysis shows, the existing dictionary Internet portals contain materials only from several dictionaries of the Russian language, published in the late 20th - early 21st century. The Internet complex provides users with a much wider range of search possibilities in comparison with traditional (paper) references, in particular - the formation of a search array (all dictionaries, one dictionary, a group of dictionaries selected by one or another characteristic), search by example and by characteristics of words described in the database. In this case, it is possible to implement a one-parameter and a multi-parameter search. The corpus contains an important component which includes the extended descriptions of all sources, along with a general characteristic and detailed parametric characteristic of each dictionary with the information about the word and the type of its presentation. Virtual reference databases will be linked with dictionaries and reference books already functioning on the Internet and with network text resources (in particular, with the National Corpus of the Russian language). The result of the project is the portal which is constantly supported and updated with a) the data from new dictionaries and new volumes of ongoing publications, b) new areas (characteristics, parameters). The electronic corpus will be available on the KFU web-site "Kazan linguographic fund" (open access, www.klf.kpfu.ru). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The problems of pain diagnosis and treatment through the use of language are really acute all over the world nowadays. The quality of diagnosis and treatment directly depends on a person's ability to accurately define it. Verbal communication is one of the most powerful tools in psychology, and this tool has speech and language specific features. In Russia there is a lack of instruments for the evaluation of pain and other sensations, especially in patients with alexithymia [1] who often have psychosomatic disorders. Many issues related to the phenomenon of alexithymia are still problematic. There is no unambiguous interpretation of the concept itself, its nature, the mechanisms of formation and development. To determine the level of alexithymia, there are different scales and questionnaires: TAS (Toronto Alexithymia Scale), BVQ (Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire) etc. Semantic model of speech of patients is characterized by the moderate or severe deficit at different stages: the stage of inner speech, the formation of a deep-syntactic structure, the stage of verbal expression. So, patients with alexithymia have a deficiency in cognitive processing of emotional information as they pay attention to the physical state, while the psychological state remains at an unconscious level. As a result, the negative emotions are not expressed and appear as various somatic symptoms, such as eating disorders, gastrointestinal disorders, bronchial asthma, diabetes, musculoskeletal diseases, fibromyalgia, hypertension, coronary heart disease, neurotic disorders, chronic pain syndromes, stress disorders, depression etc. Thus, different types of limits in verbalization of emotions and feelings lead to the development of various somatic disorders in patients. The paper describes the connection between alexithymia and psychosomatic disorders and discusses the linguistic aspects of this problem. The collection of anamnesis and complaints in alexithymic patient causes many difficulties in everyday medical practice. Medical specialists need specific diagnostic tools for such patients - batteries of tests and questionnaires with a set of word descriptors and phrasal descriptors for different types of negative sensations, especially pain. This project is launched at Kazan Federal University by the multidisciplinary group of scientists including neurologists and linguists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are diseases that can be identified by the data obtained through laboratory and instrumental analysis but there also a lot of diseases that do not have explicit morphological substrate and can be diagnosed only on the basis of patients' reports. Pain is one of the most frequent medical problems of the second type, and the task of clinical linguists is to help neurologists and other doctors treating pain to organize the effective communication with patients and help them to find the appropriate words for their feelings. Verbal communication difficulties in the process of collecting anamnesis vitae can lead to an incorrect diagnosis and complicate the recovery. The most difficult task is to receive the precise description of pain from the patients with alexithymia. Alexithymia is usually regarded not as a disease, but as a specific cognitive feature. Currently, alexithymia is considered as a non-specific risk factor for psychosomatic diseases. The patients with alexithymia are not able to express their feelings verbally. They can hardly execute the procedure of naming their sensations. In everyday life it may be not so important, but when they communicate their complaints of pain to a doctor, it causes a lot of problems in diagnosis. In this situation the help of linguists is really necessary because they help establish contact with the patient and choose the appropriate speech material. They create pain questionnaires and sets of descriptors which can be offered to the patients with alexithymia to make diagnosis easier. The first step was the survey conducted in population without alexithymic features. The respondents were asked to describe their pain. First, respondents were tested on the Toronto alexithymia scale (validated Russian version of TAS-20) to identify the level of alexithymia. The survey involved males (15) and females (25) between the ages of 20-45 years. The sample was random. Then, this group of people was asked to describe headache, back pain and heart pain (the respondents were tested on the McGill Pain Questionnaire). The results were analysed and included into the database of descriptors for later use in clinical practice in application to the patients with alexithymia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is a well-known fact that the problem of information support is one of the urgent issues in didactic linguistics. It is thus obviously necessary to provide the process of education with modern means of e-support in different knowledge domains. The terminological tools play an essential role in various application fields of term representation, and thesaurus is one of the most effective tools. The research group at the Department of Applied Linguistics (Kazan Federal University) is creating a number of electronic terminological thesauruses (the e-TT). The paper describes the structure of the e-TT and of its reference entries, the didactic and information potential of the e-TT and the prospects of their development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]