Adolescent dissociation and alexithymia are distinctive but overlapping phenomena

Tolmunen, Tommi; Honkalampi, Kirsi; Hintikka, Jukka; Rissanen, Marja-Liisa; Maaranen, Päivi; Kylmä, Jari; Laukkanen, Eila

doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2008.10.029

« Previous Next »Psychiatry Research
Volume 176, Issue 1 , Pages 40-44, 30 March 2010

Adolescent dissociation and alexithymia are distinctive but overlapping phenomena

Tommi Tolmunen
- Department of Psychiatry, Kuopio University Hospital, P.O. Box 1777, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +358 40 8277 523; fax: +358 17 175320.
Kirsi Honkalampi
- Department of Psychiatry, Kuopio University Hospital, P.O. Box 1777, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland
Jukka Hintikka
- Department of Psychiatry, University of Tampere, Department of Psychiatry, Paijat-Hame Central Hospital, Lahti, Finland
Marja-Liisa Rissanen
- Department of Psychiatry, Kuopio University Hospital, P.O. Box 1777, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland
Päivi Maaranen
- Department of Psychiatry, Kuopio University Hospital, P.O. Box 1777, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland
Jari Kylmä
- Department of Nursing Science, University of Kuopio, P.O. Box 1627, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland
Eila Laukkanen
- Department of Psychiatry, Kuopio University Hospital, P.O. Box 1777, FIN-70211 Kuopio, Finland

Received 8 April 2008; received in revised form 29 August 2008; accepted 24 October 2008.

Abstract

Findings on the association between dissociation and alexithymia in adult populations are inconsistent. Dissociation has also been related to other types of psychopathology. Few studies have been published on these connections among adolescents. We examined the association between Adolescent Dissociative Experiences Scale (A-DES) scores and those for the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS), the 21-item Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-21) and the Youth Self-Report (YSR), as well as subscales of the TAS and the YSR, in a sample of Finnish adolescents aged 13 to 18 years (n=4019). Factor analysis suggested that dissociation can be considered distinctive from other psychopathology. A-DES scores, however, associated strongly with several other scales and subscales measuring psychiatric symptoms. In logistic regression models the strongest associations were observable between the A-DES and TAS subscale ‘difficulty identifying feelings’ (DIF) and the YSR subscale ‘thought problems’. Thus, dissociation and alexithymia can be considered distinctive but overlapping phenomena.