Evaluation of Alexithymia in Morbidly Obese Patients Through Two Different Instruments

Obesity is a condition determined by social, physical, psychological and cultural factors. Alexithymia is one of the psychological factors investigated in obesity patients and it is also considered as one of the factors that play an important role in the surgical weight loss. In the literature, the relation between alexithymia and obesity is uncertain. In all studies alexithymia is evaluated through 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), the most widely used self-report questionnaire to assess this construct. It is possible that in this clinical sample it is more appropriate to use another instrument, the Toronto Structured Interview for Alexithymia (TSIA), where scores are attributed by the interviewer and are independent of the subject’s capacity to respond adequately to self-report measures. The first aim of this study is to use a multimethod measurement, TAS-20 and TSIA, to assess alexithymia in morbidly obese patients and to investigate the relationship between alexithymia and obesity as measured by Body Masses Index-BMI. A future aim of this study is to investigate the role predictive of alexithymia on the surgical weight loss. TAS-20 and TSIA were administered to 20 obese patients scheduled for bariatric surgery (7 males, 12 females, mean age 39,75, mean BMI 43,45). Discrepancies emerged between TSIA and TAS-20 in evaluation of alexithymia. The structured interview allowed detection of a higher level of alexithymia compared with the self-report instrument. At the TSIA the clinical sample showed higher scores (27,6) than the Italian general population (18,4), while at the TAS-20 our sample obtained scores (38,25) lower than those obtained by the average Italian population (44,7). It is possible that the characteristics of this sample influence the capacity to respond adequately to self-report measures. The TSIA seems to be a more adequate instrument than TAS-20 to evaluate alexithymia in morbidly obese patients.