Two facets of being bothered by bodily sensations: anxiety sensitivity and alexithymia in psychosomatic patients

ObjectiveAnxiety sensitivity (AS) and alexithymia have common characteristics with regard to somatic sensations. The purpose of the present study is to investigate if both constructs are distinct or overlapping in a sample of psychosomatic inpatients.MethodsWe analyzed the alexithymia scores of extreme groups who are high and low in AS and the correlations between both constructs in 204 patients.ResultsAs predicted, groups with high and low AS differed significantly in their Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) scores. The correlations between the Anxiety Sensitivity Index and the TAS-20 were moderately high and were not significantly reduced if conceptually redundant items were removed from the TAS-20. A common factor analysis of the combined items of the Anxiety Sensitivity Index and the TAS-20 yielded no item overlap between the extracted factors of both measures.ConclusionResults suggest that AS and alexithymia are related, but they are also distinct constructs. Therefore, it is important to assess AS and alexithymia separately.