Alexithymia and Grief Reactions in Bereaved Japanese Women

ABSTRACT

To examine the relationship between grief reactions and alexithymia, 54 Japanese women (33 outpatients attending a psychosomatic clinic and 21 normal healthy participants) completed the Texas Inventory of Grief (TIG), the 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20), and the Profile of Mood States (POMS). Each woman had experienced the death of a spouse or a first-degree relative. The TIG scores were positively correlated to the scores on the first TAS-20 factor of Difficulty Identifying Feelings and on the POMS tension–anxiety and depression scales. The scores on the first TAS-20 factor were higher in the psychosomatic group than in the normal group. Complicated grief reactions may be closely associated with both alexithymic character and mood states in bereaved Japanese women.

Acknowledgments

We thank the staff of the Visiting Nursing Station of the Japanese Medical Association for their help with data collection. This study was partly supported by the Sasagawa Medical Research Foundation (2003).

Notes

^a p values are based on Student's t test (age and the time since the loss) or chi-square test (information on the loss). Concerning the scores on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale and grief reactions, analysis of covariances was used for a comparison between the two groups while controlling for the effects of age and the time since the loss.

^b n.s. = not significant (p < 0.05).

^c The period from the onset of disease or injury to death. No information was obtained from three subjects (two in the psychosomatic group and one in the non-patient group).

^d VAS = Visual Analog Scale (0-100).

^a n.s. = not significant (p > 0.05).