Why do alexithymic features appear to be stable?: A 12-month follow-up study of a general population

Background. This 12-month follow-up study investigated the prevalence of alexithymia and its relationship with depression in a sample of the general population from Eastern Finland (n = 1,584). Methods: Alexithymia was assessed using the 20-item version of the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS) and depression using the 21-item Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Results: The prevalence of alexithymia in each study phase was similar (baseline: 9.7%; follow-up: 10.1%). Mean values of BDI, TAS-20 and subfactors of the TAS-20 also remained unchanged between the study phases. However, by using the original cutoff points, we found that a proportion of the subjects were in a different TAS-20 category on follow-up than at baseline. The mean values of BDI had not changed in those subjects who had similar alexithymia status in both phases, but increased or decreased in parallel with the change in TAS-20 score among all other subjects. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that it is important to use a variety of viewpoints when studying changes in alexithymia status. Alexithymia appears to be a stable trait based on the similarity of the mean TAS-20 scores in separate study phases. However, when focusing on the changes in alexithymia status at the individual level, alexithymic features also appear to be state dependent and strongly related to depressive symptoms. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.