Alexithymia, Cardiovascular Reactivity, and Symptom Reporting During Blood Donation
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19303142 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Nelson Byrne (McGill University), Blaine Ditto (McGill University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2005 |
| Volume | 67 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 471-475 |
| Publication date | 2005-05-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Psychosomatic Medicine (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0033-3174 • E-ISSN: 1534-7796 |
| Publisher | Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1097/01.psy.0000160471.66399.12 |
| PMID | 15911912 |
| OpenAlex | W2169043841 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 34 |
OBJECTIVE: With blood donation serving as a naturalistic stressor and a controlled medical event, the aim of this study was to examine emotional and cardiovascular reactivity, self-report of vasovagal symptoms, and perceived pain as a function of scores on the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20). METHOD: Healthy young adult blood donors (N = 610) recruited at mobile blood collection clinics completed the TAS-20, pre- and postdonation measures of anxiety, postdonation measures of pain and vasovagal symptoms, and had their blood pressure and heart rate measured before and after giving blood. RESULTS: Alexithymia score was positively associated with reported anxiety, pain, and vasovagal symptoms. Higher alexithymia was also associated with greater increases in predonation systolic blood pressure in anticipation of blood donation. In general, women and less experienced blood donors reported more vasovagal symptoms than men and more experienced donors, and this corresponded to higher rates of treatment by the nurses, more fainting, and fewer full units of blood obtained. However, despite more reports of vasovagal symptoms by alexithymic donors, alexithymia score was not related to these variables. CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that individuals with higher alexithymia scores were more anxious in the blood donation setting and more prone to report physical symptoms in the absence of a clear difference in the medical outcome of the blood donation procedure
Alexithymia · Anxiety · Blood pressure · Fainting · Heart rate · Physical therapy · Psychiatry · Stressor · Toronto Alexithymia Scale · Vasovagal syncope · Blood donation and transfusion practices · Clinical Psychology · Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion · Internal Medicine · Medicine · Psychology · Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
The Prevalence of ‘Alexithymic’ Characteristics in Psychosomatic Patients
Pathways linking affective disturbances and physical disorders.
The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia scale—II. Convergent, discriminant, and concurrent validity
Recent Developments in Alexithymia Theory and Research
The Alexithymia Construct
The twenty-item Toronto Alexithymia scale—I. Item selection and cross-validation of the factor structure
Alexithymia and repression
Alexithymia may influence the diagnosis of coronary heart disease
Impaired Verbal and Nonverbal Emotion Recognition in Alexithymia
| Citations per year | 0.15 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2013 - 2016 (4) |
| Highly cited | No |