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. 2024 Jun 18;24(1):451.
doi: 10.1186/s12888-024-05902-0.

The association among negative life events, alexithymia, and depressive symptoms in a psychosomatic outpatient sample

Yinghan Xie #  1 , Dandan Ma #  1 , Yanping Duan #  1 , Jinya Cao  2 , Jing Wei  3
Affiliations

The association among negative life events, alexithymia, and depressive symptoms in a psychosomatic outpatient sample

Yinghan Xie et al. BMC Psychiatry. .

Abstract

Background: Depression is a life-threatening mental health problem. Various factors have been demonstrated to be associated with depressive symptoms, including negative life events (NLEs) and alexithymia. A retrospective study was conducted to investigate the relationship among negative life events, alexithymia, and depression symptoms in a psychosomatic outpatient sample in China.

Methods: A total of 2747 outpatients (aged 18 - 65) were included in this investigation. The Life Events Scale (LES), Toronto alexithymia scale (TAS-26), and 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) were used to assess NLEs, alexithymia, and depressive symptoms, respectively. A stepwise regression analysis model was established to investigate the relationship among alexithymia, NLEs, and depressive symptoms.

Results: Overall, 67.0% of the patient sample had a PHQ-9 score of 10 or higher. The stepwise regression analysis model showed a well-fitted model, in which NLEs and alexithymia explain a total of 34.2% of the variance of depressive symptoms in these participants. NLEs (β = 0.256, p < 0.001) and dimensions of alexithymia (difficult describing feelings (β = 0.192, p < 0.001) and identifying feelings (β = 0.308, p < 0.001)) were positively correlated with symptoms of depression.

Conclusions: Previous studies have confirmed the correlation between NLEs and depression, alexithymia and depression, respectively. In our study, we used a stepwise regression model to explain the relationship among those variables simultaneously, and found that NLEs and alexithymia could function as predictors of depressive symptoms. Based on this discovery, alexithymia-focused treatment strategies could be alternative in depressive patients with alexithymia, but this remains to be verified in the future.

Keywords: Alexithymia; Depression; Negative life events; Stepwise regression analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

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