Skolskjutning

Alexithymia in autism: cross-sectional and longitudinal associations with social-communication difficulties, anxiety and depression symptoms

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.
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 Strengths and limitations

A major strength of our study is the inclusion of a heterogeneous, well-characterised sample of autistic males and females, aged 12?30 years. By including females, we were able to ascertain that significantly more diagnosed autistic females than males report high alexithymia. This implies that observed sex differences in rates of co-occurring emotional symptoms in autism (i.e. higher rates of anxiety/depression in autistic females; Mandy et al., Reference Mandy, Chilvers, Chowdhury, Salter, Seigal and Skuse2012) may be explained by sex differences in their underpinning mechanisms. Furthermore, to our best knowledge, this is the first study to report longitudinal associations between alexithymia and social-communication difficulties, anxiety and depression symptoms in autism. We were thus able to confirm that alexithymia in our cohort was generally stable over a period of approximately 12?24 months, supporting the conceptualisation of alexithymia as a trait, rather than state (Salminen, Saarijärvi, Ääirelä, & Tamminen, Reference Salminen, Saarijärvi, Ääirelä and Tamminen1994). However, we also acknowledge several limitations.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/alexithymia-in-autism-crosssectional-and-longitudinal-associations-with-socialcommunication-difficulties-anxiety-and-depression-symptoms/E682D1AC555FB579EE5247C1E9215761