Somatization and alexithymia in young adult Finnish population

Background: We assessed alexithymia and alexithymic features among young adult subjects with and without somatization symptoms in an epidemiological setting with a sample of young adults. Methods: The sample consisted of urban 31-year-old subjects (N = 1002). Data on somatization were gathered from a review of all public health outpatient records. Subjects with four or more somatization symptoms according to the DSM-III-R criteria were considered somatizers. The 20-item version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was used to measure alexithymia, Subjects with a total TAS score over 60 were considered as being alexithymic, and those with a score under 52 were considered nonalexithymic. Subjects with a total TAS score from 52 to 60 were considered as having alexithymic features. Results: The prevalence of alexithymia was 6.0% among somatizers and 4.8% among subjects without somatization symptoms, and the prevalence of alexithymic features was 7.5% and 12.6%, respectively. Conclusions: No association was found between alexithymia and somatization in young adult general population, The earlier theory of the association between alexithymia and somatization may be questionable. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.