Alexithymia and postpartum anxiety and depression symptoms: a follow-up study in a pregnancy cohort

Abstract

Introduction: There is a lack of longitudinal studies assessing the significance of alexithymia on the emergence of mental illnesses. We aimed to evaluate the potential effect of alexithymia on postpartum anxiety and depression symptoms in a sample of parents to be.

Methods: In a pregnancy cohort, longitudinal data were available from three time points (gestational weeks 18−20, and 3 and 12 months postpartum) for 100 mothers and 65 fathers. The 20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was used to assess alexithymia, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) to evaluate anxiety symptoms and the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) to assess depression. Linear regression analyses were used to estimate the effect of alexithymia on the symptom scale score changes from baseline.

Results: Both in mothers and fathers, the TAS-20 total score was significantly correlated with the STAI and EPDS scores at several time-points, with a higher TAS-20 score indicating more symptoms. In the regression analyses, the association of alexithymia with later symptoms became non-significant in mothers. However, in fathers, the TAS-20 score had a statistically significant effect on the increase of the STAI score at 3 months postpartum (p = 0.006). For the separate TAS-20 subscales, difficulty identifying feelings had a significant effect on the increase of anxiety by 12 months postpartum (p = 0.023) and difficulty describing feelings on the increase by 3 months postpartum (p < 0.001).

Discussion: Although the setting did not facilitate the assessment of actual diagnoses regarding the anxiety and depression symptoms, alexithymia appears to have a significant effect on the increase of postpartum anxiety symptoms in fathers-to-be.

• Alexithymia
• anxiety
• depression
• pregnancy
• prospective

Declaration of interest

The present study was supported by a grant from the Hilda Kauhanen memorial fund. The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Current knowledge on this subject

• Alexithymia has been repeatedly associated with several somatic illnesses and mental disturbances.

• There is a clear lack of longitudinal studies assessing the significance of alexithymia on the emergence of these conditions.

• The results concerning the association of alexithymia with postpartum mental disorder symptoms have been inconsistent.

What this study adds

• For mothers, no significant association of alexithymia with postpartum anxiety or depression symptoms was found.

• Also for fathers, the relation of alexithymia and depression symptoms became non-significant.

• However, alexithymia was statistically sign ificantly associated with an increase in postpartum anxiety symptoms for fathers.