Alexithymia in Adolescents With and Without Chronic Pain

Purpose/Objective: Alexithymia refers to reduced emotional awareness and is associated with higher levels of burden and disability in adults with chronic pain. Limited research has examined alexithymia in adolescents with chronic pain. The current study aimed to (a) determine whether alexithymia was higher in adolescents with (vs. without) chronic pain and (b) examine the relationship between alexithymia and pain experiences in youth. Research Method/Design: We assessed alexithymia in 22 adolescents with chronic pain and in 22 adolescents without chronic pain (otherwise healthy), and its relation to pain experiences (i.e., self-reported pain intensity, pain bothersomeness, and pain interference), while controlling for the concomitant effects of psychological distress (i.e., depressive and anxiety symptoms). Results: After controlling for psychological distress, adolescents with versus without chronic pain had higher total alexithymia scores (p = .042; eta(2) = .10), and specifically, greater difficulty identifying feelings (p = .001; eta(2) = .23). Difficulty identifying feelings was related to worse pain interference (r = .55; p = .015) and pain bothersomeness (r = .55; p = .015). Conclusions/Implications: These preliminary findings suggest that adolescents with chronic pain may have greater difficulty identifying their emotions, and that this might be related to increased pain interference and pain bothersomeness. Impact and Implications Emerging research suggests that alexithymia can be reduced in targeted interventions for adults with chronic pain, and that changes in alexithymia are associated with improvements in pain experiences. Limited research examining the relationship between alexithymia and chronic pain in adolescents hinders the application of such research to pediatric samples. In this project, we took one step toward this larger goal by establishing preliminary findings regarding the association between alexithymia and pain in adolescents. Adolescents with chronic pain may have reduced ability to identify their feelings, compared to their peers without chronic pain. This may have implications for emotion regulation and mental health. This may also impact the delivery of psychological interventions to youth with chronic pain; for example, these youth may benefit from strategies to label and identify their emotions in therapy.