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Bethany F. M. Oakley, Emily J. H. Jones, Daisy Crawley, Tony Charman, Jan Buitelaar, Julian Tillmann, Declan G. Murphy, Eva Loth, et al.
(2022).
Alexithymia in autism: cross-sectional and longitudinal associations with social-communication difficulties, anxiety and depression symptoms.
Psychological Medicine, 52(8), 1458-1470.
Cambridge University Press (CUP).
- Date de publication
-
08/10/2020
- Identifiant
-
10.1017/s0033291720003244
- Auteurs
-
Bethany F. M. Oakley,
Emily J. H. Jones,
Daisy Crawley,
Tony Charman,
Jan Buitelaar,
Julian Tillmann,
Declan G. Murphy,
Eva Loth,
The EU-AIMS LEAP Group
- Source
- Psychological Medicine
- Détails
- 52(8), 1458-1470
- Type de référence
- article
- Éditeur
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Source de métadonnées
- crossref
Résumé
Abstract Background Alexithymia (difficulties in identifying and describing emotion) is a transdiagnostic trait implicated in social–emotional and mental health problems in the general population. Many autistic individuals experience significant social-communication difficulties and elevated anxiety/depression and alexithymia. Nevertheless, the role of alexithymia in explaining individual variability in the quality/severity of social-communication difficulties and/or anxiety and depression symptoms in autism remains poorly understood. Methods In total, 337 adolescents and adults (autism N = 179) were assessed for alexithymia on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and for social-communication difficulties, anxiety and depression symptoms. A total of 135 individuals (autism N = 76) were followed up 12–24 months later. We used regression models to establish cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between alexithymia, social-communication difficulties, anxiety and depression symptoms. Results Autistic individuals reported significantly higher alexithymia than comparison individuals (p < 0.001, r effect size = 0.48), with 47.3% of autistic females and 21.0% of autistic males meeting cut-off for clinically relevant alexithymia (score ⩾61). Difficulties in describing feelings were particularly associated with current self-reported social-communication difficulties [p < 0.001, β = 0.57, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.44–0.67] and predicted later social-communication difficulties (p = 0.02, β = 0.43, 95% CI 0.07–0.82). Difficulties in identifying feelings were particularly associated with current anxiety symptom severity (p < 0.001, β = 0.54, 95% CI 0.41–0.77) and predicted later anxiety (p = 0.01; β = 0.31, 95% CI 0.08–0.62). Conclusions Our findings suggest that difficulties in identifying v. describing emotion are associated with differential clinical outcomes in autism. Psychological therapies targeting emotional awareness may improve social-communication and anxiety symptoms in autism, potentially conferring long-term benefits.
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