Alexithymia and Psychopathology among Bariatric Surgery Candidates

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2006

Authors

Verissimo R (Author) FMUP

Journal

Title: Journal of Psychosomatic Research

Vol. 61 No. 3

Pages: 391-392

ISSN: 0022-3999

Publisher: Elsevier

Scientific classification

CORDIS: Social sciences > Psychological sciences ; Health sciences > Medical sciences > Medicine > Psychosomatics

Other information

Abstract (EN): Background: Morbid obesity, with all the impact of its associated co-morbidities, has become a major public health concern; in its high prevalence and increasing incidence, it even is steadily evolving into supplant smoking while source of preventable illness. The failure of conventional therapeutic approaches to produce lasting results, along with the development of surgical techniques, have led to a high and increasing number of these interventions. However, the long¬term success of weight loss largely relies on implementing changes into life style. Reason why the pre- and post-surgical psycho-behavioural assessment is imperative. Nevertheless, due to the relative scarcity of conclusive studies in this area, uniform and well grounded guidelines for candidate selection and treatment are yet to be established. Aim: The present study is aimed as a contribution to recognize such variables, pretending to research and analyze the way they interrelate. Methods: To do so, 180 morbid obese patients were interviewed; being assessed in their psychopathology (SCL-90R) and alexithymia (BVAQ), but also on their perception of family functioning. Results: The considered variables, generally speaking, assumed scores significantly diverse from those obtained within reference groups. In another hand, exception made for the emotional composite and analyzing feelings - as assessed by the BVAQ -, they also related significantly with somatization. However, controlling for difficulties in identifying and verbalizing feelings within alexithymia, only interpersonal sensitivity, anxiety and phobic anxiety, and perception of familial dysfunction, lastly remained as contributors to somatization. Conclusions: This population has a high psychoneurotic load, which, in a personality framework prone to obsessive-compulsion, may well be characterized by a somatization materialized as over weight. This somatization outcome from a high interpersonal sensitivity and hyper-arousal; leading to phobic anxiety and depressive feelings. Emotional regulation difficulties, in turn, will give birth to emergent alternative defence mechanisms, compulsive, underlying the over weight; especially associated with a perception of lack of family support.

Language: Portuguese

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific