ArticleTranslational psychiatry2025
Alexithymia may explain the genetic relationship between autism and sensory sensitivity.
Article in Translational psychiatry, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- A Reliable Effect of Alexithymia, but Not Autism, on Placebo Hypoalgesia.Autism : the international journal of research and practice · 2026Article
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
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Abstract
Sensory symptoms are highly prevalent amongst autistic individuals and are now considered in the diagnostic criteria. Whilst evidence suggests a genetic relationship between autism and sensory symptoms, sensory symptoms are neither universal within autism nor unique to autism. One explanation for the heterogeneity within autism and commonality across conditions with respect to sensory symptoms, is that it is alexithymia (a condition associated with difficulties identifying and describing one's own emotions) that has a genetic relationship with sensory symptoms, and that alexithymia commonly co-occurs with autism and with several other conditions. Using parent-reports of symptoms in a sample of adolescent twins, we sought to examine the genetic association between autism, alexithymia and sensory symptoms. Results showed that the genetic correlation between autism and sensory symptoms was not significant after controlling for alexithymia. In contrast, after controlling for variance in alexithymia explained by autism, the genetic correlation between alexithymia and sensory symptoms was significant (and the proportion of variance explained by genetic factors remained consistent after controlling for autism). These results suggest that 1) alexithymia and sensory symptoms share aetiology that is not accounted for by their association with autism and 2) that the genetic association between sensory symptoms and autism may be, in part or wholly, a product of alexithymia. Future research should seek to examine the contribution of alexithymia to sensory symptoms across other conditions.
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